O.J. Simpson: The End of the Road

With his passing, we're left with the most divisive and complicated legacy of the last three decades. Only Donald Trump will exceed it.

My first memory of O.J. Simpson? Harking back to the Misty Seventies, it wasn’t him as a Buffalo Bill rushing for over 2,000 years in a single season - didn’t care much for sports then unless it involved Muhammad Ali.

No, it had to be those commercials.

By that time in the late ’70s, he was a shell of himself as an NFL player, just like Joe Namath. Both hobbled to the end of their respective careers with new teams - O.J. with the 49ers, Broadway Joe with the Rams. But both were smart enough to moonlight on television while still playing, easing into their post-football lives.

Joe Namath retained his likeability. So did O.J. - for a time.

All the way up through the silly “Naked Gun” movies, he had a sky-high likeability rating with the public. Everybody, it seemed, loved O.J.

And then the bottom dropped out.

The Trial of the Century ensued. No need to go through the gory details - just watch the outstanding “O.J.: Made in America” documentary, which quite simply is one of the greatest docs ever made. It really frames what the case was about, which sadly eclipsed the horrific murders of two people. Like an unforgiving mirror, it shined right back in our faces the pent-up frustration not only of recent years (e.g., Rodney King, political scandals, sensationalized media) but also of the previous 200 (racism, civil unrest, the volatile economy).

In a foreshadowing of where we are today, the appetite for compromise and common understanding went out the window. The “O.J. Did It” camp could not abide the “O.J. Is Innocent” camp, with the trial serving as the metaphorical playing field.

It was about winning. And not necessarily about justice.

Thus, when the verdict was announced, the winners cheered and shouted like they had won the Super Bowl. And the losers yelled and cried about a miscarriage of justice, not unlike how sports fans react to a bad call from a referee that decides the outcome of a game.

If the O.J. trial was the first quarter of a football contest, then three decades later we are quite possibly in the last. Now, more than ever, it’s winning that matters most in politics. Not actual governance. Not making American society something that is aspirational, something that the rest of the world envies and wants to emulate. Not compromise, nor even the common decency of “agreeing to disagree” as part of normal daily discourse.

Nope. It’s about winning, regardless of cost. Regardless of ethics, honesty, respect.

And yes, regardless of love. Winning trumps all.

And speaking of trumping all, O.J.’s complicated and divisive legacy will be exceeded one day by someone with the initials of DJT.

Whatever your thoughts of O.J., we can only hope that someday - sooner rather than later - the rules of engagement change to allow more empathy and mutual understanding between groups of Americans who view each other as sworn enemies.

If not, then the dangerous game we’re in will go into overtime.

Sudden death overtime.