OJ Simpson,76, is dead

Get the Point!

When news broke that NFL Hall of Fame running back O.J. Simpson, 76, had passed from prostate cancer yesterday, I found myself at a rare loss for words in the moments after I read the reports.

If you are my age or older, you remember Simpson, nicknamed “The Juice,” for the amazing football talents that he routinely displayed during his 11 year career with the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49’ers. When I was a toddler, I had an OJ Simpson action figure —and I used to mimic his running through the airport as a Hertz Rent-A-Car spokesman by running through our hallways at home throughout my childhood.

As I grew older, I enjoyed reading about Simpson and his family in the pages of Jet and Ebony magazine—and considered him to be a real life example of the fictional Apollo Creed, the character from the Rocky movies who had a beautiful wife, big house, fancy cars, stylish clothes, and perfect command of the English language. And while he never was destined to win an Oscar Award, I enjoyed watching “Juice” on television and in the movies throughout the late 70’s and the 80’s.

OJ with his first wife, Marguerite, and their children Arnell and Jason, circa 1972

But as is often the case with celebrities, I didn't know OJ personally; when news broke in 1994 that his second (ex) wife, Nicole Brown, had been found murdered in front of her home along with her friend, Ron Goldman, while I was skeptical that Simpson would commit such a heinous act, the world soon learned all about the domestic violence and other sordid aspects of their tumultuous lives together—and apart.

Ron Goldman (26), and Nicole Brown Simpson

We also learned that no matter how many times OJ was accused of beating Nicole, that his friendship with local law enforcement protected him from any real consequences due to his bad acts; curiously, OJ was born and raised during a time when Black men and boys were lynched for even staring at a white woman too long, but here was OJ—the Black football and Hollywood star—who could brutalize his blonde wife with impunity. This dichotomy, as rap mogul Jay-Z quipped on one of his classic songs several years ago, led to the myth of “I'm not Black—I’m OJ.”

But OJ was Black…

If OJ ever truly thought that he was something beyond Black, he was reminded otherwise during the summer of ‘94 when he found himself facing two counts of premeditated murder for offenses that he adamantly denied culpability during his first court appearance.

Yesterday, I had several friends message me about my Facebook post declaring in memoriam that I didn't believe that OJ killed Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. Today, I added a short post on my social media page averring the same, but adding my reasons why:

“While there are some really good "think pieces" circulating on social media about that tragic event almost 30 years ago, I will keep mine relatively simple: I do NOT believe that a 48-year old OJ, a light brown skinned Black man with two bad knees from his Hall of Fame football career, was able to fight off a 26-year old (in shape) man (Goldman) who the medical examiner concluded put up a huge fight to save his life--and still walk away with no serious purple and black bruises or other serious injuries to his body. I don't believe that OJ was able to perform the so-called "Colombian Neck Tie" on two people, with the cuts being so severe that his ex-wife was nearly decapitated, and walk away with no accidental cuts to himself (which do happen in close quarter knife fights/killings based on my own talks with medical examiners through the years). Thus, I don't believe that OJ was able to beat down Goldman, stab him and Nicole to death, wade in their massive flow of blood that looked like a red river near her townhouse, get into his white Bronco while only leaving a few specks of blood on (and in) the truck and his home (planted later), shower, change clothes, get rid of the knife, and be ready for his taxi ride to the airport in just under one hour. The country boy in me who has cleaned his share of wild game knows full well how hard it is to get dried and drying blood off of your hands and from under your nails etc, but folks will have you to believe that an aging and physically diminished OJ Simpson did ALL of that and came away with only a superficial cut to his knuckle? I didn't buy it then and don't buy it now, while also understanding that reasonable people will often disagree, as per our rights!

Did OJ know who killed Brown and Goldman? Perhaps; if we know nothing else, Hollywood is weird to us normal folks, and as many folks have said, there are lots of weird things that go on in those drug infested "Eyes Wide Shut" circles that OJ and Nicole and their friends ran in back in the day. But what I do know is that for "all of the mountains of evidence" that LA prosecutors promised to show, that none of them were able to answer those simple questions about the lack of injuries to OJ's own body and the fact that he would have to have been a Marvel Universe superhero to have done all that and made it onto his red-eye flight to Chicago on time that night.”

OJ’s lifelong friend and teammate, A.C. Cowlings, drove the Juice in his own white Bronco prior to his surrender for two counts of First Degree Murder.

Last, the People vs OJ Simpson will be forever remembered as the “Trial of the Century” due to the inordinate attention that it was given in the media; that attention, I believed then and now, was due to RACE. Had the victims been a pretty Black woman and strong young Black man, instead of a pretty white woman and strong young white man, yes, there would have been some media coverage due to OJ’s celebrity, but not the 24/7 First World obsession fest that ensued. Indeed, the fact that a Black man was accused of killing TWO white people—and had enough money to retain a “Dream Team” cadre of lawyers that included the great Johnnie Cochran, F.Lee Bailey, DNA expert Barry Scheck, and appellate guru Alan Dershowitz, was something many Black Americans never thought they would see in the 20th Century—but we did!

In fact, I admit that my own decision to become a trial lawyer was directly due to my being MESMERIZED by the advocacy of Cochran, Bailey et al, and when I enrolled in law school in ‘96, it was clear that the Simpson verdict was still a very raw event for the future litigators studying at the University of Florida College of Law, and the notion of “justice” in the Simpson case was greatly stratified on our campus along racial lines, with nearly unanimous pride among my Black classmates—and nearly unanimous “that creep got away with murder” thoughts from my white (and some non-Black) classmates.

In my end analysis, we may never know what happened on the night of June 12, 1994, but I do know that for my generation, the one that was born during and immediately after the Civil Rights Movement, the Simpson “Trial of the Century” made it crystal clear that the notions of justice (and even friendship) could be colored by skin color—a reality that can only be overcome through honest conversations that, even unto this very day, most people are unwilling to fully engage.

Lest we forget…