Bush gets away from questions

Moments after it was announced Thursday that Vince Young had beat him out as NFL rookie of the year, Reggie Bush was nonetheless as elusive as ever.

Asked to comment on published reports of taped conversations between him and the founders of a marketing agency who allegedly funded his parents’ home during Bush’s senior year at USC, the New Orleans Saints running back dodged.

“I don’t feel like this is the right place or time,” Bush said, refusing the answer the question. “It is what it is.”

He added, “With more success comes more people who want to bring you down and see you not succeed.”

Bush did talk about his mocking gesture to the Chicago Bears’ Brian Urlacher after Bush scored on an 88-yard catch-and-run play for the Saints during the NFC championship game. Bush appeared to wave at Urlacher before somersaulting into the end zone. The Bears later said that his perceived cockiness inspired them to victory.

“I wasn’t pointing at Urlacher, I was just pointing in general,” Bush said. “I was caught up in the emotion and the magnitude of the game. It was just not mature on my part. I apologized to the coach.”

He added, “It’s one of those things, you’ll look back on it years from now and realize you made a mistake.”

Between the question about the rent money and questions about the taunting, Bush became irritated, finally saying, “What is this, Court TV?”

-- Bill Plaschke

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Larry Johnson was supposed to run all over the Indianapolis Colts in the playoffs.

But he didn’t.

The reason for that, Kansas City’s Pro Bowl running back said, is partly because the Colts were playing with wounded pride, having heard for so long how feeble they were at stopping the run.

“All of them sat and watched ESPN the whole week” before the first-round game between the Colts and Chiefs, Johnson said at a Super Bowl XLI promotional event. He gained just 32 yards rushing in the defeat.

“That’s the only thing people talked about was how we were going to run on top of them. We weren’t prepared for them putting eight, nine in the box.

“We wanted to run and it seemed like we didn’t have anything to combat that to change things up, and it happened to eat us up.”

The Bears know this, of course. They’ve been studying the Colts closely, and they know that Indianapolis’ run defense is far more capable than it was in the regular season -- and that a big reason for it is that hard-hitting safety Bob Sanders is back and healthy.

The Bears feature an effective one-two punch with running backs Thomas Jones and Cedric Benson, who rushed for 1,210 and 647 yards, respectively, during the regular season. And they’re well aware of the strides Indianapolis has made against the run in the postseason, shutting down Johnson and Baltimore’s Jamal Lewis in consecutive weeks.

Benson said the improvement mainly has come because the Colts “are getting more serious about it. They got more disciplined about it, focused on being in the right gaps, and did a lot less freelancing out there. ... It’s almost like if you said, ‘Hey, it’s the playoffs and it’s one-and-out.’ They made their minds up that they weren’t going to be one-and-out.”

-- Sam Farmer

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He wore a Colts Jeff Saturday jersey -- and yes, if you must know, it was not snug.

So that Subway diet must still be working for Jared Fogle.

The Subway guy, who once weighed 425 pounds, made the rounds at Radio Row on Thursday, to speak about his love for his hometown Colts, even comparing their ascent to his own.

Fogle, 29, recently worked as a celebrity server with many Colts players at a Make-A-Wish event.

The menu?

“Chicken or steak,” Fogle said.

We’ll assume that was the Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki and the Chipotle Steak & Cheese.

Fogle’s favorite celebrity encounter?

Not surprisingly, it was with another dieting pitchman.

“Dan Marino,” Fogle said. “I was such a follower of him when I was a kid, and now I’ve met him several times, and done “The NFL Today” show with him. The first time I met him, his son was with him, and he pulled me aside and said, ‘Jared, I hate to do this, but can you give my son an autograph.’ It was classic. It was so surreal.”

-- ETHAN J. SKOLNICK

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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The Bears’ Charles Tillman is considered a physical cornerback, though some outside the NFL don’t believe it.

“People think that just because you’re a football player you have to be 6-7, 280 and just so ‘buff,’ ” said Tillman, who is 6 feet 1, 196 pounds.

“I was in an elevator with a couple, the lady saw my name tag and said, ‘You play for the team?’ I told her yes.

“She said, ‘Pretty skinny, eh?’

“Well, it pays the bills,” Tillman said he told her. “I’m small, but I need to be small so I can run fast.”

Her response: “Oh, OK, thank you.”

-- JOHN MULLIN

Chicago Tribune