04-14-2024, 08:12 PM
(04-13-2024, 12:59 AM)bfine32 Wrote: I'm no one's judge, jury, or executioner. I'm sure that has been done now by the one true authority and I pray for those who grieve.
WTS, it was a tragedy how his story went from a fairy tale to a train wreck.
I do remember watching him run behind the "electric company' back in the day and it was fabulous.
People who weren't around before the murders became the most common thing associated with his name lack some important perspective.
OJ really was living a fairy tale kind of life. He was one of the first black athletes that was openly marketed by mainstream companies nationally. His reputation was that of an affable and relatable superstar. There was nothing controversial or subversive about him. His play at USC and in Buffalo was a gold standard before the time of Barry Sanders vs Emmett Smith kind of obscured it a bit.
He was the chosen one, in a way. Jordan before Jordan at a time when athletes weren't quite the force in marketing that they would eventually become.
Instead of fulfilling that promise, he more or less heralded in a new era of highly opinion-based cable news and even reality TV in some way.
It's super odd that he just happened to be the cultural figure that ended up at the center of so many shifts in how we consume news.
One could argue that his impact on the nation exceeded that of any athlete in history, and not in a good way.
