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http://www.fantasyguru.com/football/...hinterview.php

by John Hansen

Publisher, FantasyGuru.com



There’s nothing better than the NFL Playoffs. There’s no shortage of entertainment, of course, but the post-season is especially gratifying for me because it signals the end of 5-7 consecutive months of intense work and insane coffee consumption. For once, I can kick back and take pleasure in some NFL football knowing I don’t have an 80-hour work week ahead of me. And the football I view isn’t your typical mid-season fare; it’s high drama.



Unfortunately for yours truly, I’m able to rest easy for only a week or two after the regular season ends before I’m starting to map out a plan for the next season. One of the first things I do is consider which player I want to interview and put on the cover of this fine periodical. Back in 2004, it was an easy call: LaDainian Tomlinson, a great player and, from all accounts, a great person. LT was so impressive to interview, and his performances on the field the three seasons since I chatted with him speak for themselves. So the bar was raised very high. Last year’s cover, Steve Smith, is extraordinary on many levels, and he certainly met my criteria for our cover subject. I want an elite talent, but I also need to find a player who clearly has an intense desire to be great, and I don’t want to have any doubts about the player’s moral fiber.



In other words, don’t expect Mike Vick to make it to the very front of our magazine anytime soon.



So who was I going to pick for 2007? I need our guy to fit the description outlined above, but I also want a player about whom fantasy owners might still have some questions. After all, whether I interview Peyton Manning for the cover or not, you’re still going to rank him #1 on your draft board, so what’s the point?



So basically, my ideal cover subject is a player who is clearly an elite talent, preferably a potential all-time great, has a strong work ethic with no character issues, but is someone who might still be a little unproven as an NFL player and fantasy option.



And if he’s able to perform miracles, all the better.



It just so happened that I started thinking hard about whom I wanted for this year’s cover as I sat down to watch the NFC title game back in January. I had a guy in mind; just the week before, he took the hit of the year in the Divisional Playoff game and popped right back up, which impressed me. And with the Saints trailing 16-7 early in the 3rd quarter in the NFC Championship game, Reggie Bush took a Drew Brees pass down the sideline and turned it into an 88-yard TD – and at that moment, I knew the identity of the guy I wanted to get for this year’s cover.



Based on his body of work in high school and college, Bush scoring an 88-yard touchdown is standard fare. But this is a player whose struggles as a runner went from concerning early in the season to surreal by the middle of the 2006 campaign. Bush didn’t score a rushing or receiving TD until Week Ten, didn’t have his first 100-yard game until Week Thirteen, and by the official middle of the season, through Week Nine, he ranked as only the 38th best fantasy RB (in a non-PPR league). Any NFL scout with a clue believes Bush has everything it takes to have a brilliant NFL career, so clearly something was going on with the Heisman winner and 2nd pick overall of the 2006 NFL Draft, and I wanted to know what.



But another intriguing aspect to the Reggie Bush story was the team he (surprisingly) ended up on. An accepted interpretation of the word Saint is: “an ideal model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal.” That definition certainly applies to Bush, the NFL player. Another interpretation of "a Saint" is one who performs miracles. It was certainly a miracle for the New Orleans organization and family that Bush fell to them in the draft, especially given what the organization, and especially the city, has been going though. Maybe Bush didn’t perform miracles for those who drafted him in fantasy football last year, but I believe it will be doing just that very soon.



Bush is a player who had garnered more than his fair share of headlines, but there was also no shortage of storylines relating to this player in 2006. He already fit my ideal description of a cover story interview, so you can see why I wanted to get him – and get him I did on a Friday afternoon in New York City the day before the draft.


FantasyGuru.com's John Hansen with Reggie Bush



FG.com: Once the magical season got underway in New Orleans, did you start feeling as if it was almost your destiny to play for the Saints and that everything wound up working out the best for you, not being the #1 pick?



Reggie Bush: I think so, just because of everything, the way it played out. The impact I was able to make right away in the community, I think it worked out really well and it almost seemed like I really was destined to go there. I think a lot of people felt like I was destined to go there, too, you know, with everything I was able to do. The way we were able to lift the spirits of the city – it really couldn’t have worked out better and come at a better time.


FG.com: Some backs are able to step right into the NFL from college and excel as runners, yet you had some trouble early in your rookie year. Talk a little about what you were going through early last season.



Reggie Bush: I think it was just a matter of my being patient and kind of seeing things and allowing myself to slow the game down and not try to force it. Once I did that – and guys like Deuce McAllister and Drew Brees were able to help me do that – it was like I was my old self again; I was playing football and having fun again.



FG.com: A very typical shortcoming of a young RB is his propensity to take too many runs to the outside. Was that especially problematic for you, given your skill set and your incredible production and execution in college?



Reggie Bush: Oh, definitely. Initially, I was trying to force things to happen instead of allowing myself to see the holes and using my vision. I was trying to force things, especially outside. I maybe got caught trying to use my speed a little too much.



FG.com: Talk a little about your instincts. If they tell you to take a play outside, and you’ve had great success doing that throughout your career, how difficult is it to make the adjustment?



Reggie Bush: It’s tough, and because I’ve been so successful at taking plays, I have to learn to harness that ability and use it wisely.



FG.com: Later in the season you really did start to run with more authority and “hit it up in there” more, and your execution and production greatly improved. You looked like the Reggie Bush from USC. Talk a little about the journey you went through from early in the season to the latter stages of ’06, when your play improved greatly.



Reggie Bush: Early I wasn’t trying to allow plays to happen; I was trying to force them. By that I mean taking the 3 or 4-yard runs when that’s all that’s there and then when I get that big opportunity taking advantage of that, as opposed to trying to force the big play, the big run, every time. So once I allowed that to happen and slowed things down, I became a better player, a better runner, later in the season.



FG.com: What’s the #1 thing you want to improve on in 2007?



Reggie Bush: I think there’s always room for improvement with pass-blocking; it’s a huge key for a RB and it allows you to become a complete player.



FG.com: An underrated aspect of playing the position is recognition. Where do you feel you are in terms of being able to consistently read and recognize defenses so that you can get the most out of your abilities every time you touch the ball?



Reggie Bush: I think I’m pretty good at that, but there’s always room for improvement. That’s an area I definitely want to reach a high level at. I feel like once I do that, it will be one of the key elements for me to become a great player.



FG.com: You’re obviously very fast, and that’s a God-given ability. But talk about things like your ability to set defenders up and then freeze them. Is an ability like that strictly God-given, or is it something that can be taught?



Reggie Bush: A good deal of it is God-given, a blessing, but it also comes with so many years of practice. I’ve been doing this since I was eight years old, and a lot of it is stuff that I’m used to. I know what works and I practice it, so I’m able to use it.



FG.com: You’ve played alongside a pair of bigger backs the last few years in LenDale White at USC and Deuce McAllister now in New Orleans. Talk about the positives of a backfield situation like that for you.



Reggie Bush: There are a lot of positives that come out of it. You help each other by saving each other’s bodies. You’re not taking 30+ carries a game and getting beat up all the time. And especially later in the season, your bodies are still fresh while some other guys may be wearing down a little.



FG.com: Do you have plans and aspirations to eventually be a featured runner, or would you prefer to be utilized similar to how you were in your rookie season, as a dual threat?

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