Take down O.J. Simpson’s jersey from the Coliseum
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USC, take down the scoundrel’s No. 32. It’s time, and it’s the right thing to do.
Saturday at the Coliseum, the Trojans will play the Oregon Ducks in a highly anticipated Pac-10 game. Unless USC officials act quickly, spread out over empty stands at one end of the Coliseum will be a series of gigantic Trojans jerseys honoring every Heisman Trophy winner to play for the school. One of the jerseys is emblazoned with a huge No. 32, a tribute to O.J. Simpson, who if you haven’t heard was convicted Friday of robbery and kidnapping charges for his role in a Las Vegas hotel room heist.
That’s right, O.J. is now a convicted felon, one who could end up spending the rest of his life in a Nevada prison, meaning USC has both a public relations and a moral problem on its hands.
USC, like any university, is supposed to be in the business of shaping the minds of its students, most of whom are fresh out of high school. What signal does it send to the student body when they show up at USC games and see a guy like Simpson still celebrated like some sort of god? What message does Simpson’s super-sized jersey send to the football players? That it’s fine to solve problems with brute strength and intimidation? That it’s all good, so long as you bring home a Heisman Trophy or gridiron glory to USC?
The robbery and kidnapping conviction is ugly stuff, though not nearly as ugly, of course, as the crimes of which Simpson was accused in the mid-1990s: the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Simpson was acquitted of those charges in a criminal trial that won’t ever be forgotten. But in 1997, he was found liable for the deaths in a civil trial, putting him on the hook to pay the victims’ families $33.5 million. Simpson fled to Florida, paying little of the money. Then he proceeded to spend the last decade mocking the families with such stupid stunts as his low-life book, “If I Did It.” That’s twisted. Simpson is the very definition of a scoundrel.
USC’s position on this matter has always been that Simpson is being honored for what he was on that campus in the 1960s, far before he mucked up his life. That’s more than a little myopic, if you ask me. His jersey, that No. 32, has far-reaching symbolic resonance to most of the public. Most people see it and don’t think back to 1968, they think of Simpson’s life as a whole, a life now punctuated by Friday’s conviction. USC, have some decency, some sensitivity. What do you think flashes through the minds of the Brown and Goldman families, or of any victims of violence, when they see that jersey?
I know what the answer will be from many Trojans apologists: What do we care? We’ll do whatever we want to honor one of us.
Observation on the apologists: Sad, but not surprising.
Remember, the Coliseum is owned by taxpayers. We’re helping foot the bill for every inch of it, making it doubly disgraceful that a swath of that historic place is festooned with Simpson’s jersey. As far as I’m concerned, USC can do whatever it wants to honor Simpson’s football history on its own campus. It’s a private school, after all. My money doesn’t keep it running. Simpson’s Heisman trophy has long been prominently displayed on campus, you should know. Still is, last I checked. This might be wrongheaded, but USC can continue its own misguided hero worship on its own property, far from the sight of most taxpayers.
The Coliseum is another matter. The Coliseum belongs to us. The Coliseum is Los Angeles’ biggest display case -- it shouldn’t be sullied by any reference to a scoundrel like O.J. Simpson.
-- Kurt Streeter
