OJ Simpson Goes to Jail

I really did not want to chime in on O.J. Simpson getting sentenced to 15 years behind bars, but I guess I have to. Not because this chapter in the Book of O.J. is as captivating as the last one, but because it isn’t.

Sure, every major media outlet probably had a camera in the courtroom when Simpson was sentenced today, but when their viewers tuned in to see O.J. in the news, did they really care?

If you were one of those who followed every second of the Simpson trial back in the mid-90′s, then I’m sure you couldn’t wait for this sentencing either. But if you were like the many, who occasionally watched live coverage of that infamous case, and used the whole situation as more of a talking point about society as opposed to another moment of our nation’s sensationalism of celebrities, then you really didn’t care what happened to Simpson. Yeah, maybe a part of you wanted to see him get time in the slammer if you thought he got away from murder, but at the end of the day, you weren’t as enraptured as you were some 13 years ago.

Why is that?

It’s simple. Simpson is a joke now. After more than a decade of comedians and talk show hosts bashing Simpson to death, the one-time All-Pro running back and one of the most recognized faces of the NFL went from bonafied stardom to a punchline. And you don’t tune in for punchlines, you tune in for sustenance, and there was none here.

Long gone are the days where Simpson represented an issue of race. Even those who saw his case as a victory for the black community find it impossible to relate such issues to Simpson’s current situation.

And long gone are the days of people remembering Simpson as an athlete, pitchman and hero. The people who saw him play are too mature to care about those days, and those who would, are too young to have remembered such a time.

The fact of the matter is, Simpson is irrelevant. His sentencing was the equivalent of watching Flava Flave on reality television. Sure, his tragic fall from grace was captivating, interesting, and stupefying. But the second time around, well, it’s just reality television.

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