Frank Staheli“If I Did[n’t] Do It”
Today is kind of a bummer for me. The mega-book deal of the century just received the kibosh.
When I was a kid, one of my most prized possessions was a Buffalo Bills football helmet. All my friends were jealous. I liked the Bills because I liked Orenthal James Simpson. Not only was he an excellent player on a mediocre team, he was the picture of optimism, he was gracious, and he stuck it out for his entire career with the same crappy team. I often imagined how good he would have been if he’d been behind a good offensive line.
I liked him on movies such as “The Naked Gunâ€. I even was more inclined to rent a car from Hertz because he gave his endorsement. So when I discovered that he was pending arrest for the death of his former wife and her boyfriend, my first reaction was “He couldn’t have done that.â€
It soon became clear that there was no other alternative—he did it. I was disappointed in my boyhood idol, but nowhere near as disappointed as I would become in the months and years ahead. Chicanery and racial motivations got him off the hook on his murder trial, but a civil trial found him guilty of wrongful death and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to the families of those he murdered.
How much has been paid of his liabilities to the families? None (or close to it). His $400,000 annual pension from the National Football League is sheltered from collection. He moved to Miami so that his home and other property couldn’t be garnished either. He even had book and interview rights assigned to the name of his children so that the families of those he murdered would not be able to collect anything from that.
I thought I had been done being disappointed. Then the smarmy book deal was announced. Even worse, ‘Fair and Balanced’ Fox News initially took the bait to interview him in an effort to improve viewership during a sweeps period.
We don’t really need to know how he did it. We already know. Perhaps the voyeur in me sort of wanted to hear him say it, but it’s enough that a representative from OJ’s former publisher stated that the book was essentially an admission of guilt.
So today is a bummer. I am disappointed. Not because the book deal didn’t go through. But because it gives pause to remind me again not only of what I as a youth thought this man could become, and to realize that his attempt at a book deal is the culmination of a life wasted.
But it could have been worse. They could have actually published the book. And Fox News could have further tarnished its playboy image by interviewing a murderer. Good thing they “Did[n't] Do It”.
Frank Staheli also writes for Simple Utah Mormon Politics.