Should we feel sad that OJ Simpson died? Usually, when legends of college football (and the NFL) pass, I feel something. Sadness or a fond remembrance of historic plays that bring a smile to my face. But OJ? Nothing much.
I was on radio when it was announced. My reaction? “Great player, horrible person?” I said in question form. We all know the story of OJ the player and of OJ the accused double murderer. As a player, there was no doubt of his talents. I was not even born when OJ won his Heisman and I wasn’t even in Kindergarten when he rushed for 2,000 yards in the NFL for a horrible Buffalo Bills team. But when I began to love college football around the time Doug Flutie emerged as a starter for my childhood team the BC Eagles, the late 60s and 70s of college football intrigued me. OJ, Archie Griffin, Tony Dorsett, and the rest.
As a scout, OJ has amazing balance and vision on the field. Sure he was fast and all that and tough, but it was how he saw the running lane open that intrigued me. He was the first running back I ever studied who had football sense beyond my understanding. Simply put, he was just a natural running back with a combination of patience and burst unlike anything I’d see until years and years later.
Off the field is another story. This isn’t about guilt or innocence although I will never be shy about my opinion of his guilt as a murderer. This was the first college football star, at least for me, who shined so bright on the field and was revealed to be so dark off it. He was the perfect example of patience and calm on the field and narcissism and chaos off it. So how the hell should I feel about his death? I don’t feel a thing.
You might ask, why the hell are you wasting energy writing an article about it? Like it or not, OJ Simpson also became one of the first examples of how race can dictate feelings in sports, and it was awful. OJ’s murder accusation suddenly became less about murder and more about racial tension regarding an elite sports star.
In 1994 we didn’t have social media, we didn’t even have cell phones. But somehow there was still a nationwide divide that you could simply feel, even without today’s level of communication or ability for the common fan and man to opine.
To this day, I see posts about whether Simpson was guilty or innocent and idiotic takes about race. Like it or not, he wasn’t polarizing on the field, but off it, he was the beginning of vastly different opinions regarding elite athletes off the field. It was almost a loss of innocence for many sports fans and marked a shift that hasn’t changed since.
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So there is no RIP OJ Simpson, not from me. He’s just another reminder of how my innocent love of college football began to morph into seeing athletes, and situations, as not only serious and adult but tragic and divisive. 1994 and Simpson changed how we consume sports and it had nothing to do with on-field performance.
