My final blog post in this series centers on athletes who have gotten away with committing crimes. Athletes are similar to celebrities (whom I discussed earlier in this blog series). We look up to athletes. These men and women are capable of performing inhuman tasks involving hand-eye coordination, strength and agility, flexibility, the list goes on. Like celebrities and politicians, however, athletes also commit crimes. How do they stand up against the other two groups (politicians and celebrities)? Let’s explore…
The one athlete crime that never seems to be exhausted in popular culture is the alleged murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman by football player, O.J. Simpson. The latest media coverage occurred this year when news media reported that Simpson was on the verge of publishing a book entitled If I Did It. The book’s production was canceled and currently the book’s rights may be held up for auction with all proceeds being given to the Goldman family to whom which Simpson owes over $30 million.
October 3, 1995 is the date in history in which Simpson, now 59 years-old, was deemed not guilty for the murders. The evidence against Simpson seemed to be enough to convict him. There was the DNA that linked Simpson to the crime scene. There were also traces of blood located in Simpson’s car, in his bedroom, and driveway. A pair of gloves also pointed to Simpson as the murderer—the left glove was found at Nicole Brown Simpson’s crime scene and the other at O.J. Simpson’s home. Other physical evidence suggests that Simpson could have committed the crime as a single-edged knife was missing (the supposed murder weapon) as well as a pair of shoes that Simpson was allegedly wearing at the time.
Some believe that all the evidence was planted against Simpson, framing him for the murders. Others believe that he was the killer. Who will ever know at this point? I must admit that the fact Simpson chose to pen a book entitled If I Did It does seem a little fishy. How did Simpson get off if all the evidence against him was so compelling? Was it simply the matter of a good attorney? Was it because there were several mistakes and miscommunications made throughout the course of the trial that negated the evidence? Or was it because O.J. was a public figure with a lot of power?
I don’t know why he got off. The O.J. Simpson trial is said to be one of the greatest of its century. It began on January 24, 1995 and lasted for 133 days. The verdict was reached on October 3, 1995 and attracted approximately half of the U.S. population to watch on Court TV. The Simpson trial was, to many, an elongated episode of Law and Order. It had all the elements to a good crime mystery/drama: murder, evidence, a popular cultural figure, and intrigue. And today, over a decade later, Simpson’s trial is still receiving media attention.
Moving on…The second athlete I’d like to bring up in this discussion is Barry Bonds. Bonds, 42, has had a successful MLB career leading the league with the highest number of walks and intentional walks. He is second in homeruns, which currently total 744 as of May 5. He is only 11 home runs away from beating Hank Aaron’s major league homerun record of 755. What a career!
Aside from Bond’s success on the baseball field, his career has had some major shadows and downfalls when it comes to steroid use. Steroids and steroid use have been a part of sports for quite a while. In 2003, Bonds was involved in a scandal when his trainer, Greg Anderson of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) was indicted by a grand jury and charged with supplying anabolic steroids to athletes. This speculation led to prosecutors to believe Bonds was a user as he was trained by Anderson since 2000.
Bonds, an extraordinary athlete, attributed his athletic buildup to a new training regimen and diet. It is important to note that testing for steroids was not a mandatory procedure for the MLB prior to Anderson’s indictment. Bonds is said to have admitted Anderson gave him suspicious supplements that might be performance-enhancing drugs. However, before any convictions could be made Anderson and another three defendants in the scandal struck deals with federal prosecutors, which banned them from revealing the names of any athletes who may have used steroids.
The book, Game of Shadows (2006) by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, is a permanent piece of popular culture that points to Bond’s usage of steroids during certain points in his career. The book also contains excerpts of the grand jury testimony, which is supposed to be kept sealed and confidential from the public view. The authors, reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle, investigated drug use in athletes, including Bonds for two years collecting data that can be considered questionable.
Bonds sued Fainaru-Wada and Williams and attempted to block the book from being published. Bonds was unsuccessful and a judge deemed the authors’ book an exercise of free speech. Bonds dropped his lawsuit in June 2006. Bond’s lawsuit may point to his guilt of using steroids, however, his career has remained unharmed.
In April 2006, federal prosecutors began to examine whether Bonds had committed perjury in the grand jury trial of 2003. Anderson refused to testify in the trial and was jailed, but released shortly after. It is said that Bond’s medical records were obtained in July 2006 by federal prosecutors. These medical records as well as testimony from several other witnesses point to Bond’s usage of steroids that possibly led to a knee injury last season and an elbow injury in 1999.
Anderson remains in jail today for contempt and the attempt to link Bonds to steroid use ensues. Fans of MLB are split, half believing that Bonds hasn’t used steroids to reach his career high success at the age of 42 while others doubt that he could have such success without using steroids. It seems that Bond’s usage of steroids is currently on the backburner of current events as he continually nears reaching an all-time homerun record.
Bonds continues to play outfield for the San Francisco Giants and is cashing in this season at $15.8 million with $4 million in additional incentives. Nevertheless, he is extremely close to breaking one of the most prestigious MLB records.
It seems that athletes aren’t much different from politicians and celebrities. It’s easy to ignore their crimes because they are public figures. We would rather celebrate their accomplishments and hold them in our memories as heroes rather than criminals. I personally believe this trend is a cultural phenomenon that is detrimental. Public figures need to be treated like the public they serve and represent. Preferential treatment should not apply to them.
I have attempted to discuss and come up with some potential answers as to why public figures (politicians, celebrities, and athletes) get away with perjury, murder, drug abuse, and a multitude of other misdemeanors. To my dismay, I have reached no conclusive answer. I can only conclude that public figures enjoy a heightened popularity and power than regular people because we allow them to. They are held in the limelight and admired for their accomplishments and those attributes that are not as flattering are swept under the rug and ignored. Why? Because society prefers it that way.
Leave the six and ten o’clock news report murders and crimes to the regular common criminals of the day and keep the public figures safe. For without model citizens, what would our society be?
I will leave the answer to that question up to you. As for me, I’m off to enjoy my weekly perusal of People and Us magazines to catch up on my politician, celebrity, and athlete gossip, which may very well indeed provide the topic for my next blog post! Cheers!
Credits: Photos are compliments of Google Image Search. See below for direct URLs to each photograph.
O.J. Simpson: http://www.pdhyman.com/blog/oj-simpson.jpg
Barry Bonds: http://www.mikepaulblog.com/blog/media/Barry%20Bonds%20SI.jpg
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