O.J.'s turn to dark side perplexing

O.J. Simpson's latest legal mess isn't funny.

Late-night comedians will crack jokes about him and I'll laugh out loud with everybody else.

But this isn't funny.

Among the developments in Simpson's meltdown are the deaths of two people in 1994, and many of us still believe he murdered them.

Now Simpson faces up to seven felony charges in Las Vegas. If convicted, he could live the remainder of his life in jail.

Robbery with a deadly weapon … assault with a deadly weapon … handcuffs … held without bail … arraignment … serious stuff.

Most troubling about all this is how one man could go from being so beloved nationally to being this horrifying human being.

Was Simpson fooling us back in the day by pretending to be a good guy? Were we celebrity-gawking gullible? Or was he good back then before becoming evil?

The wider question is, do all of us have some dark place deep inside that, if lucky, we successfully suppress?

Anyway, a common belief is that people like to build up people just to see them fall. Sometimes we do, yes, but not always. I don't want to see Michael Jordan, Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey, Brett Favre or any of the other alleged good ones turn out bad.

It wasn't amusing to see Pete Rose banned from baseball or Barry Bonds go from a great player to an asterisk or Bill Belichick regress from grouch to cheat.

I certainly didn't want to see Simpson plunge from superstar to super bad. For me, his fall might be the most uncomfortable.

Simpson was Jordan before Jordan was Jordan. He was Sara Lee: Nobody but tacklers didn't like "The Juice."

His nickname was embraceable. His smile was disarming. His manner was easygoing. Overall the man was approachable.

Maybe Simpson worked at cultivating that image, but it sure did come across as genuine.

Here's a story I first related while Simpson was going through his double-homicide trial.

After moving from the Bills to the 49ers, Simpson was transitioning to acting in 1979 while playing his final NFL season. His TV movie "Goldie and the Boxer" was about to air and a public-relations man scheduled him to phone me.

Usually back then the athlete would forget. The interview would have to be rescheduled. The p.r. person would apologize. The athlete still wouldn't call. The p.r. person would promise he would this time. If the athlete finally did, it often would be past deadline.

Not O.J. Simpson. He not only phoned when he was supposed to but was as engaging as imaginable.

Simpson talked for about 45 minutes to an unknown sports writer from a newspaper he never heard of, and he made it seem like we were old high school buddies.

That's how you became a sports icon back before sports marketing machines were refined.

What I remember most was Simpson saying Hertz -- remember him running through airports for the rental-car company? -- assured him the O.J. brand would endure beyond his football career.

Now many of Simpson's former fans believe he's a murderer, sponsors won't touch him, and he again is fighting to stay out of prison.

How does a guy go from that to this, from there to here, from likable to despicable?

In a way the question is fascinating and in another it's frightening.

mimrem@dailyherald.com