Bush Proves to Be More Elusive Than Ever

He has spent the last three years sprinting away from opponents, rendering them dusty, bloody and face down.

Is Reggie Bush now doing the same to USC?

Will his last official act before signing a professional contract be the defacing of his college program?

There are still many unanswered questions about a controversy that has performed a sudden Bush-like somersault across the sports landscape.

But this much is clear:

* His parents lived, for a year, in a house owned by a businessman attempting to secure Bush as a client.

* Bush has refused to answer questions as to whether they paid rent.

And USC, despite no apparent involvement, could end up a victim.

While Bush is making big money in the NFL, the Trojans could lose big money in the future because of NCAA sanctions.

While Bush streaks into the pro spotlight, USC is left with the scuff marks.

We often read the sad tales of universities exploiting athletes for profit before discarding them like threadbare socks.

But if allegations that Bush received what the NCAA calls “extra benefits” prove correct, tell me again, who’s using whom?

“Mad at Reggie Bush?” Pete Carroll asked me Tuesday during a phone interview. “Why would I be mad at Reggie Bush?”

Oh, I don’t know.

Maybe because Carroll constantly warns his players about the danger of premature involvement with agents?

Because Carroll does all but literally chase these agents off campus?

Because Carroll has worked hard to build that rare dynasty that follows the rules?

“I’m on my kids at every turn, every day, doing whatever I can to keep outside influences from clouding their thought processes,” Carroll acknowledged.

Mad at Reggie Bush? Maybe the Trojan family should be.

Some say there is no way a college kid could know the finances of his parents’ living arrangements.

“Think back to when you were in school, did you know how your parents paid the mortgage?” Carroll asked.

Of course not. For me, for the longest time, mortgage was only a word written on the back of a Monopoly property.

But being the most famous college athlete in the country, Reggie Bush is different.

For a year his parents lived in a huge house owned by businessman Michael Michaels, who fancied Bush as the client who would help him launch a San Diego-based sports agency.

Bush wouldn’t have wondered why, and how, his parents were suddenly loading up boxes?

More compellingly, Michaels wouldn’t have wanted Bush to know that he was doing his parents a favor?

A businessman allegedly ate thousands in rent each month to be Bush’s friend, and Bush isn’t going to know about it?

That doesn’t make sense. And neither does it seem plausible that Bush didn’t know it was against the rules.

“We talk all the time about people who come after our players, people without the best of intentions, people just trying to get what they can,” Carroll said.

Bush was one of the Trojans’ smartest, hardest-working players, early for every practice, the last one to leave. Yet he missed those lectures?

Bush was so tied to San Diego that when he played, he wore the city’s main area code, 619, in black strips under his eyes. Yet he didn’t care where or how his parents lived?

We would ask these questions of Bush, but apparently he has stopped talking to the Los Angeles media that he once courted.

Bush’s marketing guy, Mike Ornstein, a former Raider official who specialized in fighting with the media, didn’t return my phone call Tuesday.

It seems Bush doesn’t need USC anymore. He doesn’t need their fans anymore. He’s long gone. He’s $25 million gone.

You want to hear him, tune to ESPN.

In a recent interview with espn.com, Bush said, “I think [college] athletes should get paid.”

If his parents lived rent-free for a year in a house purchased by a guy trying to buy Bush’s affection, then he was paid.

And, if so, then his former coach and teammates will have to foot the bill.

Tell me again, who was using whom?

Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to latimes.com/plaschke.