2008 Woodie Awards
The Sports Pile: The Juice has been loose for far too long
Why O.J. is to blame for reality T.V. and athletes misbehaving
Will Brinson
Issue date: 9/25/07 Section: Sports
"This O.J. thing is just surreal." That was the line in an email I got a few days ago, or 12 years ago, if the Internet had been up then. And while that's probably overtly simple, I really couldn't think of a better way to describe the most recent fortnight that saw Simpson get arrested for alleged armed robbery of a sports memorabilia dealer in Las Vegas.
First of all, Juice, what are you doing allegedly hijacking a sports memorabilia dealer? Right, sorry, you had to get back what was stolen from you. While the idea of choosing to bust through the door with a gun while screaming obscenities and yelling out threats over just simply filing a civil a law suit is a bit aggressive, it does raise an interesting point of criminal law defense: whether or not you can actually be stealing anything that belonged to you in the first place. Still, it doesn't really seem like the smartest move at the moment, you know? Juice wouldn't have wanted the value and his possession of anything else to come across public record, as the Goldman family is pretty likely to reap the rewards.
Speaking of which, I might have written this whole thing off as a publicity stunt for his new book, If I Did It, were the Goldmans not the one getting all the royalties. In case you haven't seen the cover, do yourself a favor and google an image of it before you do anything else today; the "if" is literally about 1/100th the size of every other word, making the whole thing come out, well, pretty awkwardly.
But awkward in a good way. Like how we spent the better half of an entire summer and then into the fall and eventual winter trial watching Juice flaunt his celebrity en route to walking away free from the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, all which our nation collectively jacked up Court TV's lifetime Neilson ratings.
And that's the thing. When we look around the landscape of sports and pop culture today, there's this permeating conscience that tells us society has allowed athletes to run amok while reality television provides the background noise for our TMQ and Perez Hilton infused celebrity gossip lives.
Or, to put it more simply, O.J. Simpson is to blame for reality television and the rise in athlete-related crime.
The first part is easy. In 1995, if you were old enough to walk, talk, or sit there Indian-style while the talking box stole your brain cells, then you, like the rest of the country, still understand the symbolic meaning of a white Bronco, and also why Ford decided to discontinue what may be the greatest automobile of all time. (They later came out with the "Escape." Go figure, right?) The same thing happened with Simpson's ensuing criminal trial: our country fixated on a gruesome murder that somehow became a polarizing race issue, eventually culminating in half the country celebrating over the freedom of a blatant murderer.
But no one, to my knowledge, has ever distinctly pointed to the fact that this comically absurd captivation eventually led to the outbreak of reality television in our country. Yes, Survivor had been thought of, and used in Europe, but no one really knew if Americans, and American television, were prepared to deal with the mundane existence of themselves being broadcast as a form of entertainment. Suddenly though, the most mundane of experiences for the layman-courtroom proceedings-became exceedingly popular, and despite the eventual fade of cameras in the court room, we've seen them pop up in faster fashion elsewhere, from the stories revolving around celebrities to camera crews following around a group of losers living in a house for a few months.
Now granted, we'd already seen ***The Real World broadcast across MTV's airwaves, and COPS was a successful show before Orenthal ever got his hands on a pair of gloves, but there's absolutely no denying the spike in reality television that bore itself out following Juice's year-long exacerbation of our nation.
But reality television is what it is. Like that purple plaid sweater that grandma got you for Christmas last year, you can usually just stick it in a drawer and ignore it. Sure, every time you open the drawer to get something else out you'll see its obnoxious color advertising itself to the world, but just for a few seconds. And of course, every now and then you have to suck it up, embrace it and just wear the damn thing.
Far more disturbing, though, is the recent trend of the athletes' ability to shake off our legal and moral standards in the face of public scrutiny. Especially when they get away with it. And before you get all saucy with me, this isn't about a white-black thing, either. Juice's trial was about race, no question. But the problem with the defense team using the country's collective race card in the Simpson trial was that it allowed the notion of celebrity trumping criminal activity to become a pretty standardized facet of our legal system. Look, I totally back the idea that in a capitalistic society you can be a wealthier individual and enjoy the freedoms that come with that status. What's not acceptable is the ability to use wealth and fame to skirt past responsibility.
Athletes aren't perfect role models of behavior. We've known that for a long time, from Wilt Chamberlain allegedly sleeping with hundreds of women, to the sometimes-talked-about-sometimes-kept-quiet gambling habits of Michael Jordan. We all have our vices, so there's no reason that celebrities shouldn't either.
But ever since O.J. waltzed away from a double-murder rap we've seen a substantial number of athletes pull similar, although certainly not as brutal, illegal or immoral acts and get away with it. Leonard Little was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter … but he's still going to be on the football field this Sunday. Ray Lewis, well … he's scary so I'm not going to allege anything … but he's still playing this week, too. Between Matt Leinart, Tom Brady, Travis Henry and Shawn Kemp, there's a decent chance they've successfully fostered more illegitimate children than the number of famous lady friends that JFK banged out in the White House, which is just another classic example of how celebrity will get you whatever you want. But the difference between then and now: discretion.
Discretion on behalf of the media and discretion on behalf of the athlete. I'm certainly not saying that all athletes should be the moral compasses of society-that's an impossible and admittedly stupid ideal. I'm not even saying all of them should be role models. All I'm saying is that if you're going to be a public figure, quit doing really stupid things, especially when those stupid things are blatantly going to be republished over and over and over on every major media outlet multiple times per hour.
And before I get too far strung out on a rant here, let me point out that I obviously don't think killing your ex-wife and her boyfriend falls under the category of "stupid things." Juice's crime was a serious, multiple life-ending violation of all laws and moral codes. (Do we even have to use the word alleged anymore?) It was straight-up murder. Why the hell do you think people use that saying in the first place: "Can you cheat in Mrs. Smith's econ class?" "Are you kidding me? It's so slack in there you could get away with murder." Once someone kills and gets away with it, passing out stone-cold drunk in your car while it's running at a stoplight seems pretty lackadaisical doesn't it? But that's what Tony La Russa did recently, with no real charges being filed. He is, after all, the manager of a major league baseball team, and we'd hate for him to be unable to drive himself to and from work every day. He certainly can't afford to pay someone to chauffer him.
Let me also point out that there have been some cases where the guilty parties have been justly dealt with: Rae Carruth has done jail time and Michael Vick appears to be en route to doing some as well. But one guy had a body in his trunk and the other had dead dogs strewn across his property in Virginia. But isn't it the mindset that O.J. produced-the knowledge that celebrity will act as the best defense-that had someone like Vick totally unafraid to run an underground dog fighting ring? It's not some violent cultural misnomer here; it's the thought process that "I'm a professional NFL player, you think they're going to put me in jail for this??"
Let me also point out that not every athlete behaves in this manner. Obviously. And I don't know why, but for some reason Torry Holt and Marvin Harrison come particularly to mind, since they don't even violate the mores of showmanship that the NFL has attempted to infringe on anyone who scores a touchdown. It's also worth noting that there are troubled individuals in every walk of life. But they don't suffer less for their crimes because of their occupation or God-given talents, so why should someone who's exceptionally gifted at sports receive the same treatment?
We can't do anything like sue O.J.; he's already been tapped out for 30 some million from the Goldmans and Browns, yet he continues to get a $25,000/month pension that they can't touch-for creating irresponsible athletes and reality television, although certainly America would watch, right?
Unfortunately all we really can do is sit back, soak up the surrealism of yet another cry for help from Orenthal and hope that this time he gets a punishment that fits. Or at the very least that he doesn't spend the next 25 years playing golf on an untouchable pension plan. Hopefully everyone will take notice this time, too.
First of all, Juice, what are you doing allegedly hijacking a sports memorabilia dealer? Right, sorry, you had to get back what was stolen from you. While the idea of choosing to bust through the door with a gun while screaming obscenities and yelling out threats over just simply filing a civil a law suit is a bit aggressive, it does raise an interesting point of criminal law defense: whether or not you can actually be stealing anything that belonged to you in the first place. Still, it doesn't really seem like the smartest move at the moment, you know? Juice wouldn't have wanted the value and his possession of anything else to come across public record, as the Goldman family is pretty likely to reap the rewards.
Speaking of which, I might have written this whole thing off as a publicity stunt for his new book, If I Did It, were the Goldmans not the one getting all the royalties. In case you haven't seen the cover, do yourself a favor and google an image of it before you do anything else today; the "if" is literally about 1/100th the size of every other word, making the whole thing come out, well, pretty awkwardly.
But awkward in a good way. Like how we spent the better half of an entire summer and then into the fall and eventual winter trial watching Juice flaunt his celebrity en route to walking away free from the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, all which our nation collectively jacked up Court TV's lifetime Neilson ratings.
And that's the thing. When we look around the landscape of sports and pop culture today, there's this permeating conscience that tells us society has allowed athletes to run amok while reality television provides the background noise for our TMQ and Perez Hilton infused celebrity gossip lives.
Or, to put it more simply, O.J. Simpson is to blame for reality television and the rise in athlete-related crime.
The first part is easy. In 1995, if you were old enough to walk, talk, or sit there Indian-style while the talking box stole your brain cells, then you, like the rest of the country, still understand the symbolic meaning of a white Bronco, and also why Ford decided to discontinue what may be the greatest automobile of all time. (They later came out with the "Escape." Go figure, right?) The same thing happened with Simpson's ensuing criminal trial: our country fixated on a gruesome murder that somehow became a polarizing race issue, eventually culminating in half the country celebrating over the freedom of a blatant murderer.
But no one, to my knowledge, has ever distinctly pointed to the fact that this comically absurd captivation eventually led to the outbreak of reality television in our country. Yes, Survivor had been thought of, and used in Europe, but no one really knew if Americans, and American television, were prepared to deal with the mundane existence of themselves being broadcast as a form of entertainment. Suddenly though, the most mundane of experiences for the layman-courtroom proceedings-became exceedingly popular, and despite the eventual fade of cameras in the court room, we've seen them pop up in faster fashion elsewhere, from the stories revolving around celebrities to camera crews following around a group of losers living in a house for a few months.
Now granted, we'd already seen ***The Real World broadcast across MTV's airwaves, and COPS was a successful show before Orenthal ever got his hands on a pair of gloves, but there's absolutely no denying the spike in reality television that bore itself out following Juice's year-long exacerbation of our nation.
But reality television is what it is. Like that purple plaid sweater that grandma got you for Christmas last year, you can usually just stick it in a drawer and ignore it. Sure, every time you open the drawer to get something else out you'll see its obnoxious color advertising itself to the world, but just for a few seconds. And of course, every now and then you have to suck it up, embrace it and just wear the damn thing.
Far more disturbing, though, is the recent trend of the athletes' ability to shake off our legal and moral standards in the face of public scrutiny. Especially when they get away with it. And before you get all saucy with me, this isn't about a white-black thing, either. Juice's trial was about race, no question. But the problem with the defense team using the country's collective race card in the Simpson trial was that it allowed the notion of celebrity trumping criminal activity to become a pretty standardized facet of our legal system. Look, I totally back the idea that in a capitalistic society you can be a wealthier individual and enjoy the freedoms that come with that status. What's not acceptable is the ability to use wealth and fame to skirt past responsibility.
Athletes aren't perfect role models of behavior. We've known that for a long time, from Wilt Chamberlain allegedly sleeping with hundreds of women, to the sometimes-talked-about-sometimes-kept-quiet gambling habits of Michael Jordan. We all have our vices, so there's no reason that celebrities shouldn't either.
But ever since O.J. waltzed away from a double-murder rap we've seen a substantial number of athletes pull similar, although certainly not as brutal, illegal or immoral acts and get away with it. Leonard Little was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter … but he's still going to be on the football field this Sunday. Ray Lewis, well … he's scary so I'm not going to allege anything … but he's still playing this week, too. Between Matt Leinart, Tom Brady, Travis Henry and Shawn Kemp, there's a decent chance they've successfully fostered more illegitimate children than the number of famous lady friends that JFK banged out in the White House, which is just another classic example of how celebrity will get you whatever you want. But the difference between then and now: discretion.
Discretion on behalf of the media and discretion on behalf of the athlete. I'm certainly not saying that all athletes should be the moral compasses of society-that's an impossible and admittedly stupid ideal. I'm not even saying all of them should be role models. All I'm saying is that if you're going to be a public figure, quit doing really stupid things, especially when those stupid things are blatantly going to be republished over and over and over on every major media outlet multiple times per hour.
And before I get too far strung out on a rant here, let me point out that I obviously don't think killing your ex-wife and her boyfriend falls under the category of "stupid things." Juice's crime was a serious, multiple life-ending violation of all laws and moral codes. (Do we even have to use the word alleged anymore?) It was straight-up murder. Why the hell do you think people use that saying in the first place: "Can you cheat in Mrs. Smith's econ class?" "Are you kidding me? It's so slack in there you could get away with murder." Once someone kills and gets away with it, passing out stone-cold drunk in your car while it's running at a stoplight seems pretty lackadaisical doesn't it? But that's what Tony La Russa did recently, with no real charges being filed. He is, after all, the manager of a major league baseball team, and we'd hate for him to be unable to drive himself to and from work every day. He certainly can't afford to pay someone to chauffer him.
Let me also point out that there have been some cases where the guilty parties have been justly dealt with: Rae Carruth has done jail time and Michael Vick appears to be en route to doing some as well. But one guy had a body in his trunk and the other had dead dogs strewn across his property in Virginia. But isn't it the mindset that O.J. produced-the knowledge that celebrity will act as the best defense-that had someone like Vick totally unafraid to run an underground dog fighting ring? It's not some violent cultural misnomer here; it's the thought process that "I'm a professional NFL player, you think they're going to put me in jail for this??"
Let me also point out that not every athlete behaves in this manner. Obviously. And I don't know why, but for some reason Torry Holt and Marvin Harrison come particularly to mind, since they don't even violate the mores of showmanship that the NFL has attempted to infringe on anyone who scores a touchdown. It's also worth noting that there are troubled individuals in every walk of life. But they don't suffer less for their crimes because of their occupation or God-given talents, so why should someone who's exceptionally gifted at sports receive the same treatment?
We can't do anything like sue O.J.; he's already been tapped out for 30 some million from the Goldmans and Browns, yet he continues to get a $25,000/month pension that they can't touch-for creating irresponsible athletes and reality television, although certainly America would watch, right?
Unfortunately all we really can do is sit back, soak up the surrealism of yet another cry for help from Orenthal and hope that this time he gets a punishment that fits. Or at the very least that he doesn't spend the next 25 years playing golf on an untouchable pension plan. Hopefully everyone will take notice this time, too.
Be the first to comment on this story