Orenthal James Simpson was convicted of kidnapping and other crimes in relation to his attempts to "retrieve" memorabilia from some dealers in Las Vegas--items he says belonged to him and were stolen. He's going to serve up to 33 years in prison, though at his present age of 61, I doubt he'll be incarcerated that long.
He seemed somewhat bewildered and expressed tearful sorrow to the judge at his sentencing hearing, according to the clips I saw on TV yesterday. The judge was not impressed. Neither, for that matter, was I. For the source of his bewilderment was that he was being convicted at all. The judge explained it in copious and coherent detail, again according to the clips I saw. I was especially impressed by her forthright statement that this conviction had nothing to do with the fact that he was not convicted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman back in 1991 . . . though to an awful lot of us, he should have been.
What struck me about Simpson's confusion was the irony of it. I saw the same reaction among males when they first learned of the murder charges against "the Juice." The consensus was "he wouldn't do that! He's a Heisman Trophy winner!"
Like that had anything to do with it.
When are people going to learn that sports prowess does NOT equal moral decency? I regret to predict that most males are not going to master this learning curve any time soon, given the universality of their confusion resulting from a Heisman winner's being charged with, let alone be tried for, murder. For whatever it's worth, most of these same males had the same reaction to the entire Pete Rose gambling on baseball mess.
The real moral of the story is that none of us should make the mistake of thinking that our heroes, athletes or otherwise, are perfect.
For whatever it's worth, I actually felt a pang of sorrow for OJ. His confusion was genuine. Still, my pang didn't last long. My ultimate hope is that his time in prison will let him reflect on all the things he's done wrong in his life--he is, as the facts plainly show, a physical abuser, and thus carries all the erroneous thinking and emotional baggage that goes with that--and maybe he'll finally be able to confront honestly the beast in his mirror.
Either that, or he can resume his hunt for "the real killer." After all, people who murder others at random are more likely to have committed other crimes, too. Simpson is much more likely to find "the real killer" in prison than he ever was on the golf course.
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