$100 bucks says O.J. won’t walk this time

At the time of the O.J. Simpson acquittal in his awful 1995 trial, I quickly pocketed the $100 I had won in a bet and then took to wondering what the rest of O.J.’s time on the planet was going to be like.

I didn’t win the $100 because I though he was innocent, but rather because I didn’t think that the jury would convict him, which, obviously, are two very different conclusions.

What would it be like, I mused, to have been an international celebrity, a Heisman Trophy winner, an NFL Hall of Famer and even an admittedly schmaltzy actor, and rather suddenly be this world-class pariah? The only thing I could conclude was that his life was going to be so bizarre as to be unfathomable.

Well, just as I was with the verdict, I was correct on this one, too. No need to recap all of the tawdriness of the last 13 years; suffice it to say that it’s gotten so pathetic that few but the most ardent of O.J. watchers have even bothered with it.

Most notably, mainstream media seem to have largely taken a pass on Simpson courtroom drama Part III, now under way in Las Vegas. Either I am subscribing to the wrong newspapers and magazines or O.J. Simpson’s day-to-day soap opera is deemed unwatchable.

That said, if Simpson gets acquitted yet again, I’ll pony up that $100 that I won 13 years ago and give it to the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust. Yeah, that’s the same outfit I mentioned a week or so ago as a possible recipient of my largess if the that goofy T206 Honus Wagner card could somehow be authenticated.

Since there’s no chance of that happening, I think I was feeling guilty that I had offered a “fake” donation to a very worthy charitable organization.

At least with O.J., they’ve got a prayer at getting the dough.