This is O.J., too, except that O.J. also decapitated his wife and her friend. So, I'm gonna give a slight edge to O.J.'s precipitous fall from grace. That non-isolated incident, the culmination of years of abuse he inflicted, is a pretty big distinguishing factor between him and a guy who pops painkillers and frequently cheats on his wife. Hell, I know and have worked with people like that. I never knew anyone who butchered his own wife...
And again, "Watching a successful, spirited individual slowly piss it all down the drain" is exactly what O.J. did. The murders, as dramatic as they were, represented the culmination of events that contributed to his ultimate undoing. O.J. was 46 when he killed, and had not been considered a "monster" all those years before that. On the contrary, he was celebrated by all because of what was perceived as a transcendent grace, that his skills and appeal extended well beyond the field of play (where Tiger's ended, by the way, because of his wooden personality).
This certainly contributed to Tiger's greatness, especially early on. I loved the "breath of fresh air" he brought to the game, and way his presence exposed jealous old bigots like Fuzzy Zoeller. I'm grateful for his having come along, if only for that.
Maybe the legal system works way to slow compared to the real world? Maybe that 4-6 week trial could occur in a week or two? Maybe lawyers should get to the point quicker and present cases quicker and stop dragging everything out because they like to hear themselves talk or because they are not prepared? Maybe judges should stop allowing all of these breaks and continuances? Maybe a trial should be allowed to start at 8 AM and continue to 6 PM so it gets done and people can go back to work? Most courts work bankers hours of the past. The system needs to get more efficient. If trials are shorter and occur more efficiently and actually have a determined beginning and end, maybe more citizens would be more open to sitting on jury's? The way things work it's we have adjourned for this, can we get an extension, this case will not be ready for trial for one year etc. I know its way more complicated than that but the legal world has to at least get their act into the current century because it's just way too much standing around and adjournments and delays for real people to volunteer to sit on a jury for even a simple case that could take 3 hours in court but that drags out over 3 days? From a past juror's perspective.
I've been called only three times (and I'm 59 and have lived in the state my entire life), and served just once (Essex). The other two, I went, but was not called. From a jurors standpoint, it does seem inefficient but I just dealt with it. You get called, you serve...part of being an American. Like voting.
I agree that we need to serve when called but the hours of the trials only seem to occur between 10 and 4 at most. With my trial it was a simple but still criminal case with ridiculous delays and wastes of time. We go through jury selection the afternoon of Day 1 after sitting around all day. Get called and put on jury. We attend Day 2 and we sit around for 3-4 hours waiting until they tell us the lawyers need more time and they can't start the case until the next day. The case starts finally at about 10:45 AM the third day. We go to lunch at noon after it starts and don't start up until about 1:30 and then one of the lawyers approaches the bench. They postpone the case til the next day. Finally the next day comes and a juror does not show up so they have to make sure the alternate was paying attention. Start late again. Case finally gets going and all is done within two hours. Guy is clearly guilty and jurors all agree, after lunch of course, with verdict same day. That afternoon it wraps up and the judge seems happy and comments that he is glad this didn't take too much of the jurors time? Completely inefficient process for real people who have jobs that depend on them. At most that was a 2-day deal but it took 4 and the court time was maybe 4 hours in total in the end.
Great list! You could argue Lance Armstrong should be 1 or 2 as well! Forgot about him. HBO did a recent movie on him. Thought it was a terrible production but it told the story.
