Bush may not say it, but he will be fired up for Texans

The Saints' Reggie Bush has 451 rushing yards and 304 receiving yards this season. Heinz Kluetmeier/SI

New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush insists there will be no added significance Sunday when he plays the Houston Texans for the first time since they passed up selecting him first overall in the 2006 draft.

"I know the media will play it out to be like that," Bush says of the game in Reliant Stadium. "But for me there's no added motivation. That's part of the draft. That's the way it goes."

End of story, right? Perhaps, but just when you start to think he might actually view the game as being business instead of personal, Bush pulls back the curtains and gives a brief glimpse of his inner feelings.

"I came here to a great place," he says. "We almost made it to the Super Bowl. We were one game shy -- Houston was at home watching us on TV."

Ouch!

Bush, who was taken second overall by the Saints, can downplay the game from now until kickoff, but the likelihood is that the memory of the draft has not escaped him. In the months preceding it, he repeatedly stressed his desire to be selected first. There was no gray area in his statements. He said how being the first pick was his dream ever since he was a youngster.

Then two days before that fateful day, the Texans passed him up for North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams. The move stunned and baffled Bush. People close to the situation said at the time that the former USC standout and Heisman Trophy winner never believed Houston would go through with selecting Williams, even as the organization floated the possibility the week of the draft.

"The political answer is to say no, it doesn't matter when a team gives up on you," says Saints center Jeff Faine. "But I know when I played against Cleveland last year, going against the team that drafted me and then traded me away, there was definitely motivation. Leading up to that game I was saying all the right things, and then after that game I admitted that it was great to go up there and do the things we did in getting the win.

"There's definitely added emotion, there's definitely added intensity. I hope that Reggie can contain his emotions and make the plays that he's been making -- and I'm sure that he will. He's becoming a true professional. He's coming into his own."

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