O.J. gets desperate for attention
An Alcoholic Stoops to a New Low:
The Brief Return of O.J. Simpson
O.J. tries to recapture the limelight with
his (ghostwriter’s) new book, If I Did I
Extraordinary overachievers are, perversely, frequently alcoholics. Horrific acts are terrific clues to alcoholism. The bizarre can also be an excellent indicator of addiction. If overachieving, horrific and bizarre are combined, we get O.J. Simpson: former football great and Heisman Trophy winner, convicted (in civil court) murderer and someone who recently wanted to tell the world”and his children”how he “would have”murdered their mother “if”he had done so.
“Experts”suggested his book was merely a continuation of Simpson’s well-known narcissistic tendencies, in which he has sought attention on the playing field, car-rental ads, movies and the trial of the century. It’s the only way for him to get back in the limelight, they say. Let’s instead try the idea that alcoholism-driven egomania was once again asserting itself, which is usually the root cause of what appears to be narcissism.
In a 1989 letter of apology to the woman he later murdered, his wife Nicole Brown Simpson, O.J. wrote, “…I’m not going to blame being drunk [for having struck you] that’s (sic) no excuse. (But I have decided to stop drinking and will go to AA)”(parentheses in the original). Therefore, we can safely assume alcoholism. I long ago hypothesized that he was in an alcoholic rage, a blackout (a period during which events don’t enter the memory banks, so nothing will ever be remembered), or both when he committed the murders.
Retired, with reputation shattered, Simpson is far less able to successfully inflate his ego than he once was. This is the reason middle- to late-stage alcoholics may engage in desperate and sometimes bizarre or reckless attempts at doing so. While we can expect more of the same, he’s at an age where many alcoholics begin to succumb to the ravages of the disease. I must admit to conflicted feelings. If he becomes a more obvious late-stage drunk he’ll become less capable of inflicting damage on others, but we’ll lose the entertainment value of his antics. On the other hand, with rumors circulating of unreported income from autograph signings, maybe the criminal justice system isn’t through with him. Law enforcers had to catch Al Capone for tax evasion; perhaps the same will prove true for O.J.