I was a huge fan of O.J. Simpson.
His on-field football ability at USC and with the Buffalo Bills was second only to Barry Sanders. He was the first back to rush for more than 2,000 yards. I remember watching him on ESPN replays. The way he bounced off punishing hits and juked his way through defenses could bring tears to a grown man’s eyes.
Simpson’s appeal stretched well beyond the football field, too. I remember watching him opposite of Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Gun series and thinking “Damn, this guy sucks at acting, but I respect that he’s trying.”
And he’s got the ultimate nickname — The Juice. I even saw a Bills’ helmet on eBay once that was signed by O.J. which read: “Miami may have oranges, but Buffalo has ‘The Juice.'” That’s pretty damn cool.
Then came the White Bronco chase. And the murders (Yeah, he was acquitted?). Then came his admittance of guilt in the form of a book tastefully titled, If I Did It.
But just when you think he couldn’t make any more bad decisions, just when you figured he couldn’t fall any further in the public eye, this happens.
He gets with a couple of buddies, who just happen to be strapped, and robs a sports memorabilia dealer who had a couple of the Juice’s old possessions.
Some of you might be asking why he would do this. Well, we are talking about O.J. Simpson here. The guy who wrote a first-person perspective on how he would perform the murder that he was accused of.
Simpson is the definition of the word “douche.” Let me rephrase that, he is the second definition of the word “douche.”
And this is coming from the same writer who continually defends black athletes because they generally get a bad rap in the media (I devoted an entire column to it).
Simpson is the one person who deserves the bad rap he’s got. During the murder trials, some people, both black and white, thought this was a racial issue. Those same people can’t be thinking the same thing after Simpson wrote that pathetic book and now after this disgusting display.
Maybe I’m wrong though. Maybe O.J. just got caught up in the heat of the moment or maybe he was just a victim of circumstance?again. And maybe he didn’t really mean to write a book about murdering his wife.
Hell, maybe he was drunk. It’s happened to me. Well, not exactly that. But I’ve been pretty out of it before.
Allegedly, the Juice met up with some people at a wedding and went with them up to a room where a memorabilia dealer was staying. Then, Simpson, or one of the men with him, basically assaulted and kidnapped a couple of the dealers and took the memorabilia. Juice is saying that all of the items were originally his and were stolen from him.
The charges facing O.J. include, but are not limited to, two counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of robbery with the use of a deadly weapon, burglary while in possession of a deadly weapon and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. The number of years in prison Simpson could get from all of these charges is up in the hundreds.
So, what was worth so much to Juice that he would risk multiple life sentences to get back?
Well, one of the items that Juice was so desperately trying to get his hands on was the suit he wore on the day he was acquitted of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. What, did he want to frame it on his wall under the title “The Suit I Wore the Day the American Legal System Took the Greatest Pounding of All-Time”?
What were the other items O.J. was trying to get back? The murder weapon? A bloody glove?
This whole situation reeks so badly, it’s sickening. Juice doesn’t deserve support or even pity for his latest debacle. He deserves punishment and I really hope the American legal system can deliver it this time.
You may hate O.J. for any number of reasons. I personally was a huge fan of O.J. Simpson while growing up. It’s amazing how much a few years can change a person.