DAVIE, Fla. -- Under the hot August sun, when all his teammates understandably retreated to the locker room after practice, Dolphins running back Reggie Bush's self-induced acclimation to South Florida would continue for at least 30 minutes.
He'd run 100-yard sprints on one of the team's two practice fields, harnessed into a device designed to drag sets of weights on the ground behind him. When that was done, he'd slam a blocking sled. Then he'd catch dozens of passes that would spit from a machine.
Bush never had to explain why he did it, everyday. You just knew: He had something to prove, something more to accomplish in a career defined by a strange acceptance in New Orleans that he was a nice weapon but not what so many initially hoped.
But what more exactly did he desire? Eclipsing 1,000 yards? Staying healthy in an expanded role? Serving as an every-down running back? These have long been our general assumptions -- all true, too -- but far from Bush's master plan.
"I feel like there's so much more," Bush told me earlier this week, two days after surpassing 1,000 yards for the first time in his NFL career. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."
When I asked Bush if he's capable of winning an NFL rushing title, noting the task often requires well above 1,500 yards, he did not hesitate.
