Reggie Bush and public apologies

Last week I saw an interesting interview with current Saints (at least as long as he doesn't demand the 12 million dollars owed him this year) running back Reggie Bush. The interviewer reminded Reggie of his fateful tweet after New Orleans drafted Alabama running back Mark Ingram in the first round of this year's draft: "Its been fun New Orleans."

Of course a bit later, he posted something more "diplomatic," according to Pat Yasinkas:
“Congrats to Mark Ingram on being selected to New Orleans. He will be a great addition to the Saints backfield just as he was in Alabama.’’ 

The second tweet no doubt (in my mind) came after his agent informed him of the stupidity of his first tweet. At least, that's the scenario I presume. Usually with agent motivated apologies, they reveal about as much remorse as one coming from a sociopath. 

But in this interview, you could really tell that Bush owned up to his mistake. He even berated himself for ignoring the NFL's yearly social media reminder to pause before you press "send." Its no wonder if these public or internet apologies are real or simply diplomatic. Yet is it possible that they could eventually lead to real heartfelt sorrow? Sometimes? Whether this response was motivated by an agent or fear of actually losing his job, I think it is possible even publicly "forced" apologies can result in real repentance down the road.

 

Here are a few quick takes:

1.) In a similar way, I think that corporate confession during worship, even though you're not "feeling it" at the time, can end up leading to real confession some time after the church service ends. I don't know how often it does, but I'm eager to start paying attention to how it affects me personally during the week.

2.) It is nice to see someone admit, "I was just dumb. It was my fault." Few things gain respect more than someone admitting his mistakes. Now if/when he owns up to his mistakes with the USC disaster....