Driving down I-5 with O.J. Simpson
I go way back with O.J. Simpson. No, we aren't friends and I've never met him but he came into my world in 1967. That was his first year playing football at Southern California. He was a brilliant running back from day one there and the only reason he didn't win the Heisman Trophy that season was because writers didn't like to give it to underclassman.
The next season, USC came to Evanston to play Northwestern. I was there and O.J. put on a show. It was part of a great season where he did win the Heisman. I left that day thinking he was the best running back I've ever seen play college football and almost fifty years later, I still feel that way.
He went on to a Hall of Fame NFL career and also made movies, commercials and did commentary on football games. But let's fast forward to June 1994.
I'm living in SoCal and working at a company that has an office just south of Los Angeles. I worked with a few die hard USC fans and they were also big fans of Simpson. I show up to work on Monday, June 13th and I'm greeted by one of them like this: Kris:Did you hear about Nicole Simpson? Howie:No..what about her? K: Murdered in LA. H: Wow! What about OJ? K: They say he's not a suspect. Phew.
To say she and the rest of the USC fan base held him in high regard would be understating it. Kris even made a joke about how if there was a USC celebrity involved, she was hoping it was Frank Gifford. Looking back on this, less than one day to make jokes is way too soon but I guess that was the way to deal with a horrible story.
As the week went on, the story changed and it was becoming obvious that O.J. was not only a suspect in the two killings but he was the only suspect.
We move forward to Friday, June 17th. It's the day of the funeral for Nicole Simpson and she's being buried in south Orange County. O.J. is suppose to turn himself in to the police at around noon. He doesn't show and the police let the public know about this. Here's where my car ride comes in.
My home at the time is in Tustin, which is in the center of Orange County. I'm driving home a co-worker, who lived in Mission Viejo, about ten to fifteen miles south of Tustin. We drive there on highway I-5, also known in Orange County as the Santa Ana Freeway. I drop her off, turn around and head for home. Little did I know that O.J. was in the same area. He waited until Nicole's funeral was over, went to visit/mourn at her grave and then left in the Ford Bronco with Al Cowlings behind the wheel. They were heading for Los Angeles and the first route they took was I-5.
I get home, acknowledge the people there and we turn on the television. It took less than five minutes for the news networks to break into programming and follow the low-speed Bronco chase. When they first showed the car on the highway, he was in Santa Ana, less than five minutes from our home. Doing the math, I missed being near his car by just a few minutes and we may have even passed him during the drive.
Our home also bordered I-5 and if we knew, we could have looked out the window and seen the chase. If the networks had picked up the chase earlier, there would have been the same idiot supporters yelling "Go OJ Go", right outside our door.
To say it was a bizarre day would be understating it. The memory came up because of yesterday's parole hearing for O.J. Simpson. The two hour hearing and coverage was compelling television. Maybe not as much as that day and that week in June of 1994 but must see tv none the less.
Good or horrifyingly bad, there's something about this guy and the public's reaction to him that won't let him fade away. At age 70 and after more than two decades of being a pariah, it's past time for him to lay low and live out his life with his family and quietly. I'm pretty sure that won't happen. What could possibly be next?
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