Aaron Hernandez gets convicted

No big surprise here. The verdict was as expected. Whether or not he really did it -- only Hernandez knows for sure -- will forever remain a moot point. The jury coming back "hung" would have been a stunner, and an OJ-ish not guilty finding would certainly have set the talking heads and legal analysts into warp-drive speak for a few months. But the 12 people in the box found differently and so be it. Guilty of first degree murder. A mandatory sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole.

That should be just about that -- right? Game over. Not exactly. When given such a chance, people always want to get their licks in, however misguided, illogical, and dumb they may be. The horse is dead, but they want to keep kicking it anyway. Consider.....

After the Murder 1 verdict was announced, the court allowed "victim impact" statements. Relatives of the victim could come forward to express their grief and outrage to the judge. Most courts are already hopelessly backlogged and this is a colossal waste of the court's time. The sentence is mandatory. He's never getting out, so emotional pleas will make ZERO difference. If they want to whine, take it to the media outside, who will typically be more than happy to listen to them for hours, days, weeks, or until another big story breaks in 5 minutes.

There are those crowing that Hernandez also got convicted on 5 weapons charges. Again, what difference does it make? After he dies in prison for the murder charge, will they let him rot in his cell for a few extra years on the weapons charges before disposing of his remains? What's the point in tacking on a few more years to a natural life sentence? Just how dead does a convicted murderer have to be before he's paid his debt to society in full? Such overkill, pun maybe intended, is stupid, when one thinks about it.

Yet sometimes the crowing is taken to heights of ignorance as people gleefully celebrate what should be considered a very sad case all around. At least one young man was murdered. A former star athlete will spend the rest of his life behind bars after being found responsible. This is not funny, on any level.

But as irony would have it, Hernandez will spend his time at the Walpole max-security prison located only three scant miles away from Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, where he was a star not long ago.

Some pundits find this amusing in their vengeful ways of thinking. Hernandez will be able to hear the roar of the crowds at the place he once played in, they say while the venom continues to ooze from their fangs. Life behind bars isn't good enough for them. They have to rub it in.

But they just show their ignorance. Three miles is a long way for sound to travel. Even a rocking NFL stadium isn't heard three miles away -- the sound is channeled up, not outward --  much less in a walled maximum security prison.

So Hernandez did the crime, and now he's gotta do the time. The jury and judge said so.

All the rest of the hoopla is just people taking advantage of their "15 minutes" to flap their gums when the opportunity arose surrounding a tragic situation.

Bottom line. Now in the "system", Hernandez will be "disappeared" and quickly forgotten as just another number.

Heard anything about OJ lately? Likely not. He's still doing his time in a podunk town of northwestern Nevada, appropriately enough named Lovelock.

See what I mean? Big news today is no news tomorrow.

But there's no reason to gloat about the outcomes of such scenarios. It's not funny, never was. It's just sad and tragic that certain things happened in the first place.