Imrem: Would you buy a car from any athlete?
The pizza that Peyton Manning recommends might be a bit less tasty these days.
To say nothing of the insurance, automobile and sports drink he endorses.
Manning's most precious personal commodity - trustworthiness - is under suspicion.
Even if Manning is cleared of the mess swirling around him, he'll probably find it hard to cleanse his image.
Being cleared and being cleansed are entirely different.
Until now, Peyton Manning was just about football's most popular product peddler since - yikes! - O.J. Simpson.
Let's note right here that Manning's current legal entanglements aren't at Simpson's double-murder level.
But they're ugly enough anyway: sexual harassment, defamation, cover-ups and more.
Manning finds himself swimming in a cesspool of muck dating to his 1990s college days at Tennessee.
A couple of weeks ago I went on a sentimental journey, rummaging through bins of old columns.
The headline on one from 36 years ago read, "O.J. will endure because of charisma."
Yes, that O.J. Simpson, the reason I became reluctant to rave about a player's personal character as opposed to athletic character.
I do have my lapses, maybe even treating Manning too reverentially at times, though not often because his style never appealed to me.
I interviewed Manning when he was a college junior and found him to be too smooth, if not too slick, polishing his image too much even way back then.
Not surprisingly, Manning went on to be a great NFL pitcher as well as a great pitch man.
Now Manning's name is mentioned in relation to a Title IX lawsuit targeting Tennessee, reviving disturbing allegations from his past.
When a recent one linked Manning to human growth hormones, I wrote that nothing surprises me about any athlete anymore.
My breaking point was Simpson, a Heisman Trophy winner and Hall of Fame running back.
Simpson beat the double-murder rap but is serving a prison term for other crimes.
Which gets me back to my Daily Herald column on Sunday, Oct. 28, 1979, during Simpson's final NFL season.
I explained this way how he became so popular: "O.J. Simpson had a charisma rarely found in athletes. He had an easiness about him, a confident cool mixed with a boyish smile that all added up to honesty. Surveys indicated he was one of America's most believable individuals.
"Yes, you could buy a used car from O.J. Simpson. And you could rent the cars he suggested you rent. And wear the boots and use the sporting goods and drink the juice and, well, if it was good enough for O.J., it certainly was good enough for you."
You see, Simpson was so darn charming that I referred to him by his nickname.
During a lengthy phone conversation, I asked Simpson whether he expected to remain in demand as an endorser after he retired.
"Hertz believes I'm established enough now that it doesn't matter whether I'm playing football or not," O.J. said. "It's hard to tell what will happen to my popularity. Visibility is the key, of course, but I might even be more visible after football because I won't have to devote those six months of the year to the game."
O.J. Simpson became remarkably visible 15 years later for all the wrong reasons.
No wonder I have trouble buying into any athlete's image - even Peyton Manning's - and buying the products they endorse.
mimrem@dailyherald.com