Orenthal James (O.J) Simpson, aka “The Juice”, former USC running back, was released from Lovelock Correctional Center (Las Vegas, Nevada) on October 1st, 2017. O.J was serving a nine-year sentence for a guilty conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping. This robbery and kidnapping case was one of the biggest court cases in the year 2007. It made the entire American population question whether or not O.J was a changed man ever since his murder case back in 1995; when he was found innocent of the killings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
Nevertheless, O.J is now a “newly reformed man” and that could make him “valuable” for college football programs. But would his recent release from prison make him a wanted piece of hardware for a football program who is trying to bounce back from a history of past scandals?
This talk of trying to be a “new man again” reminded me of all the older men in the world, like O.J, who are trying to find love again on the dating app Tinder; which is used by 50 million users and lets you match with people that you find attractive. My theory is, O.J is trying to find his “love” again and I think he has his creepy eyes on the football program of USC. USC should fully read the dating profile of O.J before they Swipe Right. If USC thinks the profile of O.J is attractive and begin to hire him as a staff member of the team, they could wake up to a public relations nightmare.
Having O.J.’s face on the cover of the USC Trojans football program could kill the image of the entire school. Yes, O.J did win a Heisman Trophy and had his jersey retired with the Trojans. But that doesn’t cover up the elephant in the room. The elephant being, O.J is still a convicted criminal. Just because he was a superstar running back for USC, doesn’t mean he is granted special access to a legendary football program. Who knows what kind of sketchy behavior he could bring. The hiring of a criminal to lead the image of a college sports team could create a tornado of future investigations by the NCAA. If that storm comes, it will make the Public Relations Officer of USC hide under his/her desk.
USC is no saint either. The school has encountered scandals and bad moments in the past. One of the biggest scandals involved a former star running back, Reggie Bush. Bush did dominate the NFL after his time in college. But before he was drafted out of USC, he left a stain on the school’s athletic program in 2005. Bush took money from an agent who represents NFL players, for the exchange of promising to play in the league with said agent, which is a major violation in the NCAA, and the USC staff knew what was going on and turned a blind eye and did nothing about it.
Once the NCAA found out, they came down with the hammer of justice. Not only did they take away bowl game opportunities for USC in 2010 and 2011, but also made sure the program wouldn’t be able to give out scholarships till the year 2013. This scandal put USC in the penalty box for years.
That goes to show that these kinds of scandals can put athletic programs, of any sport, into an awkward position when hiring staff. Especially in the case of USC. So, that should tell USC that hiring a former criminal might lead to problems in the future and could put the program back into that same dark place that did back in 2005.
O.J plans on going out with USC for some coffee and talks of hiring him. Like most Tinder dates, this date between a former criminal and one of the biggest athletic program in the country could turn into a disaster. Not only would USC wake up the next morning with tons of regret, but also with a phone full of texts from the world saying, “girl what did you do? You’re disgusting.”
My advice for O.J is pretty simple, put down the phone and start hitting the bar. Hopefully, you can find another football program to prey upon there and drive off in you’re Ford Bronco with that poor head coach sitting passenger.