I remember seeing OJ run through the Northwestern defense like it was butter.
A great college athlete, a pro career that was more on the Meh! side, and his post-football life was largely a total wreck aside from some memorable commercials with OJ running through airports.
Another example of someone whose life peaked in college. He WAS successful transitioning from an athlete to a celebrity. He failed at life though. I would not be surprised if after he passes, that they discover that he was suffering from CTE.
In a perverse way, his most significant contribution to society (IMHO) was the demonstration that our legal system places the burden of proof on the prosecution. When the prosecution fails to convince a jury to render a guilty verdict, the defendant by default is innocent regardless of how guilty he may have appeared.
In these days when our legal system is under attack, it is important to remember that the courts are how we as a society have decided to settle our differences. If we abandon the courts as the final arbiter of truth and justice, even when that justice is flawed and that truth is suspect, then we consign our kids and grandkids to a country that settles its differences with mob rule and violence.
Jeff
I haven’t seen any indication that the family has authorized an autopsy, he died from complications from prostate cancer.
I’ve read that most men will get prostate cancer at some point, usually by their mid 80’s, but that they’ll often die of something else first. I can’t say that’s encouraging news to someone who’s 74 like I am.
And the Naked Gun series where he played a detective.
He was the butt of many jokes in that one.
Go B1GCats
rsl
There are two kinds of prostate cancer, fast and slow.
My dad had the slow kind and lived a long and happy life. He passed two years ago at home at the age of 97.
It would make some sense that OJ had the fast kind.
I don’t know whether or not his family will request an autopsy. He had a messy life. Lost a young son to drowning. His second wife said that he beat her.
Not sure that the celebrity that he chased ultimately brought him much happiness.
Jeff
My college roommate said today that the OJ trial was the biggest trial of the 20th century
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_the_century
it definitely is listed among the top according to wikipedia for all that is worth.
For Gen Xers it probably is, but compared to Nuremberg it is not only historically insignificant but also so generationally specific. I’m a Gen Xer and remember watching the verdict while at lunch with co-workers – I don’t believe the restaurant still exists and I know my company was taken out by bankruptcy within a few years after the verdict.
If you exclude group trials and political ones(impeachment, bush v gore, scopes then I would go with Sacco and Vanzetti as my first thought although Lindberg was definitely taught in school.
It’s probably a generational thing, the trial of the Chicago 7 was pretty big when I was at NU, and I had met one of the defendants.
I think the Lindbergh case probably drew more publicity for its time than the Simpson one did.
The Leopold and Loeb case was heavily covered 100 years ago, Clarence Darrow’s 12 hour plea for them to be spared was considered one of the best case pleadings ever.
The Scopes monkey trial generated a lot of publicity, at least indirectly for its being the underpinning of the play “Inherit the Wind”.