Reggie Bush's Twitter humor falls flat

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New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush stirred up controversy again Monday with his Twitter account.

"Everybody complaining about the lockout! Shoot I'm making the most of it! Vacation, rest, relaxing, appearances here and there! I'm good!" he wrote. "Right about now we would be slaving in 100 degree heat, practicing twice a day, while putting our bodies at risk for nothing."

“

Everybody complaining about the lockout! Shoot I'm making the most of it! Vacation, rest, relaxing, appearances here and there! I'm good!

” -- Reggie Bush in a tweet Tuesday, which he later clarified as a joke

The tweet drew angry responses from many of his 1.6 million followers and prompted Bush to later clarify that he was joking.

"FYI last tweet was a joke! Relax people damn it's called sense of humor! Cry me a river why don't you..."

Bush also made headlines last month when he tweeted, "It's been fun New Orleans," shortly after the Saints traded up at the NFL draft to take Alabama running back Mark Ingram.

All of the posts have come at a time when Bush's future with the Saints is unclear. Bush is heading into the final season of a contract worth about $11.8 million for 2011, and the Saints expect him to take a pay cut this season.

Bush initially expressed a willingness to negotiate with New Orleans in the days after the Saints were eliminated from last season's playoffs. However, he has not addressed the matter publicly in recent months, other than in his Twitter post during the draft in which he hinted he believed his time in New Orleans was up.

Last week, Saints quarterback Drew Brees said he texted words of encouragement to Bush soon after he saw Bush's tweet.

Brees spoke before one of a series of workouts he's organized at Tulane with Saints teammates, who are prevented from using team facilities or having contact with coaches during the NFL lockout.

Bush was not among the nearly 40 Saints who showed up.

"I think that's just frustration a little bit, just because they draft a guy at your position," Brees said last Tuesday. "But I think the message that was sent to him was, 'By no means look at that as ... you're getting shown the door, that we don't want you,' or anything like that."

Brees, who was in San Diego when the Chargers made a draft day trade to get quarterback Philip Rivers, said he was sympathetic to Bush's initial reaction.

"He's a young guy, he's very prideful and wants to be great. He wants as many opportunities as he can get," Brees said. "I think you immediately see [drafting of Ingram] as, 'Oh, well, that's taking opportunities away from me.' But in reality, I think you've got to find the positive in it."

Bush's comments could end up being fodder for the league during the lockout.

Attorneys on both sides of the fight have routinely used comments from the other side in their arguments.

On May 2 the NFL cited Pro Bowl players Ray Lewis and Wes Welker in suggesting some players were all too happy to have the extra time off.

Welker said recently at a youth football camp, "Let's do a lockout every year," according to the NFL's filing, a statement he preceded with an in-all-seriousness assessment of the unscheduled respite forced by the lockout.

Said Lewis after an autograph signing, according to the league: "To me, this is probably the greatest window of opportunity I've ever had in my life. It's been 25 years of my life that I've never had a summer to myself."

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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