It’s been a bad week for O.J. Simpson. But I hope every week is a bad week for him, so it makes me really happy to report that America’s number one murdering asshat has just received another financial judgment against him. A judge ruled that any earnings Simpson receives from lending his likeness to the video game “All-Pro Football 2K8” published by Take-Two Interactive Software, must be turned over to Fred Goldman, the father of murdered Ron Goldman. “All-Pro Football 2K8” features 240 former football greats, and Simpson’s virtual team is called “The Assassins,” and they have a knife-wielding mascot. That is really beyond disgusting. The double murderer will do anything for attention.

“The legal victory was part of an effort by Goldman’s estate to satisfy a $33.5 million judgment won against Simpson in a wrongful death suit brought against him in the 1994 stabbing deaths of Goldman and Simpson’s ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson. The former star running back was acquitted of criminal charges in 1995 at the end of a sensational murder trial but was found legally responsible for their deaths by a civil court jury two years later.

“Simpson has maintained his innocence and vowed never to pay the jury award voluntarily.

“In their latest bid to collect on the civil judgment, the Goldmans went after any licensing fees, royalties or other compensation Simpson was paid or will be paid for his name and likeness in the new video game, ‘All-Pro Football 2K8.’

“As previewed on a Web site for video game promotional trailers, the team mascot is a hooded figure who makes stabbing motions with a large knife in the end zone when the Assassins score. Simpson does not have to be assigned to that team, but he was in a clip shown on the Game Trailers Web site.

“Take-Two has declined to say how it obtained rights to Simpson’s name and likeness but said he was compensated. The company also has issued a statement saying the knife-wielding Assassins mascot is ‘not specifically associated with O.J. Simpson, and the game does not promote any such connection.’”

[From Reuters]

That’s great. Because the American public is just dumb enough to buy that baloney, right? I’m sure it’s all coincidental. And your company gets a ton of free press, albeit it negative. I just don’t get O.J. He has publicly proclaimed that if all his earnings have to go to the Goldmans and the Browns, then he won’t work another day in his life. I’m not saying lending your likeness to a video game or ghostwriting a book is hard work, but the guy knows the money is going to go to the Goldmans. They aren’t stupid, and they are vengeful. They have every right to be. You would think that, if nothing else, Simpson wouldn’t want to capitalize on most people’s belief that he’s a murderer for the sake of his children. Even if they believe their father is innocent (and they probably do, he’s their father and he’s raised them) their mother was still murdered, and it’s incredibly poor taste to make money off her horrifically violent death.