Reflections on O.J. Simpson

I'm sure if I had this blog when I was 15, this post would be like part 3 or 4. But since this is a recent institution, this is the first and hopefully only one.

The latest Simpson trial ended with a conviction 13 years to the day of the famous murder trial. It was the end to another sad chapter in the life of the former Hall of Fame running back whose life has never been the same since 1994.

I can't believe it has been so long since all this has started. There has been a generation of people who know of O.J. Simpson in the light of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Growing up, this was not the case for me. Though I was born after his football career had ended and I didn't know him as an All-Pro running back, I was well aware of who he was. I knew him as a guy on many commercials andas the sidekick in the Naked Gun movies. But mainly, I knew him as a sideline reporter for NFL games on NBC. He was a guy who had this big grin on his face and would joke around and just be the life of the party on the sidelines.

That all changed in 1994. When the news broke about the murders, I was shocked. I remember the slow police chase in the white Bronco. I, like most people at that time, tuned in to watch the trial. As the trial went on, it seemed more and more like I didn't know the man I used to watch on the sidelines of football games. When the verdict was read, I was a sophomore in high school and I was watching it in I believe English class. It was one of those events in history that people remember.

From that moment on, it just seemed like Simpson was a different man, and not in a good way. Instead of being repentent or embarrassed or humbled by this experience, he seemed to become very haughty. More and more, it seemed that because he was found not guilty, he felt that he could get away with anything. He wrote a book called "If I Did It". He would jokingly threaten people with a banana acting like it was a knife. Finally, it was this incident in a Las Vegas hotel room.

For many people, this guilty verdict is 13 years too late. For me, I believe it may finally be the wakeup call that he needs in his life. Maybe now, he can see that his behavior affects so many people including himself. It's sad that it had to come to this but hopefully there will be a better ending that the one that has transpired so far.