Coming Friday: Yaeger's last word on Bush

Don Yaeger, the New York Times best-selling author whose 2008 book "Tarnished Heisman" (with Jim Henry, linked here) on Reggie Bush's final season at USC pretty much was a must-read by the NCAA, is the focus of Friday's media column. We sought his reaction on the news this week that Bush has decided that it's time to return his 2005 trophy before more tarnish collects on it.

Essentially, Yaeger has a sad satisfaction in being right about what he reported in the book, but some vindication because Bush tried to trash him and his credentials when the book came out.

In the book, by the way, Yaeger quotes New York Times sportswriter and unofficial Heisman historian Bill Pennington as saying Bush would be "the Richard Nixon of college football" if he were to ever lose the trophy.

Two years later, Yaeger still thinks that anology holds true.

"Pennington's right," said Yaeger. "(Bush is) the guy who resigned before he was impeached."

Yaeger, aside from being surprised that the NCAA took so long to release its investigation and lay its punishment on USC, said he could have added to his book with more information supplied by some Bush family members who corroborated facts supplied by others.

"We laid everything out that we had at the time," said Yaeger. "Some family members -- and we knew there was some family rivalry going on -- came forth after the book came out and offered to give us information if we were to retell the book. But we understood that we had to weigh the motives for everyone we interview. It doesn't mean the information is bad. In this case, it was good and detailed. But it didn't change the final outcome."

While Yaeger couldn't get Bush to cooperate with the book several years ago, he did include on the final page a quote Bush gave to the media on how he was handling the speculation about his Heisman acquisition: "At the end of the day, I know what's true. And it will come out and everybody will see that I'm still a good guy; that I'm still the same guy that I was from day one."

To which Yaeger added to finish the book: "At the end of these pages, I think everyone will know that is true."

Read more about it Friday. Meanwhile, catching up on some of Yaeger's previous works you may be familiar with:

== "A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring," with John Wooden, which came out last October (linked here)

== "Turning Of The Tide," with John Papadakis and Sam Cunningham, on the USC-Alabama game from 1971 (linked here)

== "Under the Tarnished Dome: How Notre Dame Betrayed Ideals for Football Glory" with Doug Looney (linked here).

== "It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives It Shattered" (linked here)

== "Undue Process: The NCAA's Injustice for All" (linked here)

== "Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed, and the Corruption of America's Youth" (linked here)

== "Shark Attack: Jerry Tarkanian and his battle with the NCAA and UNLV" (linked here)

== "Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL" (linked here)

== Yaeger's Amazon.com bio and list of books (linked here)