When Joe McKnight was arriving at USC as the Parade national high school football player of the year, he was often compared to another great USC running back, Reggie Bush. On Sunday, Bush will honor McKnight, three days after McKnight was shot and killed in a road rage incident in New Orleans.
Bush announced on Twitter today that he will wear cleats that honor McKnight when Bush’s Bills play the Raiders in Oakland tomorrow. The shoes will be in USC’s cardinal and gold colors and will feature a picture of McKnight, his name, and his dates of birth and death.
McKnight chose USC in part because he idolized Bush, and Bush wrote on Twitter after McKnight’s death that he was angry to see a promising young life cut short.
“RIP my brother Joe McKnight this one hurts bad,” Bush wrote. “He didn’t deserve to die that way! And then this man stands over him and shoots him again like some kind of wild animal! Sickening. Pulling a gun out to kill someone doesn’t make you tough. At what point did we just lose our ability to handle differences like men and talk out our problems! What happened to that?”
Players are usually not allowed to put personal messages on their uniforms, but the NFL is allowing all players to wear customized cleats this week to recognize causes they care about.
