What a waste.
Today marks the 16th anniversary of Simpson's transformation from hero to hellion. His ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman were both savagely murdered at her condo in Brentwood, CA on that evening over a decade and a half ago. O.J. didn't get formally charged with the crime until days later, but suspicions swirled about him almost immediately. Of course, Simpson famously went on trial for the murders that he denied committing and the televised courtroom proceedings dominated conversation and media for months.
That turned the trial into the biggest spectacle in history.
Eventually, O.J. was stunningly acquitted in the autumn of 1995, an occurrence that divided the nation along racial lines. It was obvious that he dodged a major bullet in the trial by being set free, but he lived his post-trial life with a stupefying arrogance and reckless behavior. After being ordered to pay over $33 million to the victims' parents in a 1997 civil trial, Simpson decided to stonewall the judgement and vowed never to pay it. Many years later, in 2006, he wrote a book which featured a controversial chapter detailing how he would have hypothetically murdered Nicole and Ron if he had been the "real killer." The unbelievable gall and insensitivity he showed in that endeavor outraged the public and a year later, Goldman's family successfully won the rights to publish the book themselves and profit from its sales.
If all that wasn't enough, O.J. masterminded an armed robbery and abduction caper in Las Vegas in 2007 and a year later, was found guilty on several criminal counts. He was sentenced to a prison sentence of at least nine and at most 33 years. Many observers contended that Simpson's harsh sentence was essentially "payback" for "getting away with murder" back in 1994.
O.J. Simpson was born into a poverty stricken family and was afflicted from birth with a leg disease called rickets. His impoverished neighborhood and absentee father only made matters worse, but he recovered and became a superstar football player. The pinnacle of his college football career at USC may have been when he won the Heisman trophy in 1968. Five years later, he set an NFL record for rushing yards and was fast becoming America's favorite son. He became a Hollywood figure as well as he starred or appeared in numerous minor films during the 1970's and '80's. Also, his career as a commercial pitchman for several companies flourished after he retired from the NFL in 1979. By the time his marriage to Nicole Brown grew contentious enough to warrant divorce in 1992, Simpson was also a successful television commentator on NBC.
The charmed life disappeared the night his blood ended up at a grisly crime scene and the victims' blood ended up on his vehicle and on his driveway. Apparently, O.J. lost his cool in a huge way and allowed his lack of control to force a very bad choice that destroyed his good name forever. Either way you look at it, the saga of O.J. Simpson is equal parts riveting and tragic.
Has it taught anyone else a valuable lesson?
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