Latest / OneLegUpAlex Sports / Alex Garrett and Lou Terminello On the Loss of OJ Simpson 4-11-24

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Alex Garrett and Lou Terminello On the Loss of OJ Simpson 4-11-24 · OneLegUpAlex Sports

0:03
Here's your host, Alex Garrett. Are you feeling I am that today's been
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an off day for everybody that we weren't sure if we should mourn the loss
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of OJ Simpson or we should just think of him as a guy that got
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away with murder and is now unfortunately passed away from cancer. I do feel
0:31
bad for OJ Simpson's family members that they had to see him pass away from
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cancer. I unfortunately had that same experience with my dad nearly a year ago.
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But my dad wasn't exactly accused of the bahamicide or possibly found, you
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know, acquitted under false pretenses and all that stuff. Now, that wasn't
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my dad, That was O. J. Simpson acquit it or not.
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Why would a Bronco chase even en sue if OJ Simpson was innocent. That
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is the only thing I'm going to say about that. Why would he run
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from the cops if he didn't kill his ex wife and Ron Goldman? Why
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if he was innocent, he should have just stayed put, not lead a
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whole Bronco chase down the LA Freeway to his home. It's one of the
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most unfortunate trajectories in our lifetime because here's how I will remember O. J.
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Simpson how We're going doctor Luke Urminello and gets Terminolo's take on OJ's sports
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career. But here's how I remember him. He went from a guy who
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gave that thumbs up, remember in the Naked Gun after firing the Howard certain
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from the tank of the Howartzer and the nake gun, with that wink and
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that smile and that thumbs up. Even actually wore a huge ass afro as
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part of a bit from the Naked Gun. And then of course he was
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at Our Lady of Worthless Miracles. That was a fun bit too, But
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he was charismatic. So when that Bronco chase and then when it was revealed
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had happened, imagine if tons of sports fans that were just crushed that maybe
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their icon, maybe a cultural icon of the time, could have committed such
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a double homicide. I wanted to get into what happened with Ray Lewis the
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night before there's a rowl against the Giants, but it is kind of similar.
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They both got off scot free, and there's a lot of people in
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the camp of you know what, he's going to hell. Cancer didn't quit
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him, blah blah, blah blah. Pretty awful to say that, by
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way, but the mindset of some people today is very, very harsh.
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Of course, Caitlyn Jenner went out and tweeted good riddance, OJ. And
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the thing to me is that, how on your second wind, How on
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your second wind a freedom do you then go out and rob your own memorabilia?
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Are you stupid? Is there something with the football brain injuries that you
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had that no one diagnosed? OJ Simpson? That's what it'll get me too.
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You were acquitted of double homicide and yet you're put back in the jail
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because of what you want, your own memorability, so you steal it.
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How stupid can you be? And then, of course the other thing about
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this is he continued to social media career online. But I want to go
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back to that date June seventeenth, nineteen ninety four, I personally was two
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years old and I was resting on the floor of my apartment. I kind
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of remember watching that Bronco chase of two years old and that crazy I kind
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of do. But I want to give you some audio from that day from
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our very own eyewitness news. This is fascinating coverage from that day. Of
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course, it interrupted the Knicks and Rockets finals. It actually cut away from
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the Rangers victory parade. And believe me, with the way the Rangers are
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going this year, there's some synchronicously feeling that, you know, thirty years
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ago this happened. Maybe it's passing as a sign of something good to come
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for the Rangers, and maybe there won't be an interruption of their parade this
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year. I'm just saying signs are pointing to certain things that maybe will happen
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to the Knicks and the rain Jews that nineteen ninety four were interrupted by this
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bronco chase. Did I agree with the fact that Babylon Be said he's going
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to be brought once again in a white bronco hearse? I thought that was
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kind of funny. But it's just it's sad that when such an icon of
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his time dies people mock him. That is that is just the press.
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But here's how ABC seven New York covered June seventeenth, nineteen ninety four.
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It's Newsleader Channel seven, Eye Witness News with Bill Butel, Diana Williams's Dot
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Clark with sports Sam Champion with the exclusive Acy weather forecast, and the Eyewitness
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news team. Now I Witness News. Good morning. I'm Bill wu.
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Tell if you've been watching television over the past couple of hours, you've been
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watching this search for OJ Simpson, and that search end to tonight under the
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eye of the camera outside his own front door in Brentwood, that section of
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Los Angeles where he lives, surrounded by police, by helicopters and by reporters.
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We are told that Simpson surrendered to police just a few minutes ago.
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We are totally gave up after a long, tense stand off, a standoff
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that, as I say, ended in his own driveway with police officers who
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remained within shouting distance of his open car door, which we could see a
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while ago because the light was in our favor. Then what you are looking
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now is a police chase of Simpson and his friend Al Calling. The finish
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to this bizarre case began with that picture you're looking at now, roughly eighteen
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police cars picking up Simpson's trail as he and another man, Al Calling,
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rode along a Los Angeles freeway in that white Ford Bronco that you see in
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the center of the screen and that you see now turning into the driveway of
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Oj Simpson's home. That's when the pursuit began to end. During the hour
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long journey along the city's highways, the LA Highways, Simpson was said to
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be seen riding in the back seat holding a gun to his head. The
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driver is his old friend and former teammate at USC and with the Buffalo Bills,
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Al Collings. All this cap today, in which the LA District Attorney
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announced that O. J. Simpson would be charged with two murders, and
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instead of surrendering his promise, Simpson fled and his lawyer later told reporters that
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he feared that Simpson was suicidal. This is what he said. I had
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nothing to do with Nicole's murder. I loved her, always have and always
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will. If we had a problem, it's because I loved her so much.
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Recently we came to the understanding that for now we were not right for
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each other. I can't go on. No matter what the outcome, people
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will look and point I can't take that. I can't subject my children to
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that. This way, they can move on and go on with their lives.
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Don't feel sorry for me. I've had a great life, great friends.
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Please think of the real OJ and not this lost person, the whole
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letter, the whole fleeing cops, everything about that day just seems so strange
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for a guy who claims his innocence, doesn't it Again, I'll let you
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decide, and no, I don't think it's racist to say O. J.
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Simpson was involved with the murder and my DOUBLEHEMO side, I don't think
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it's racist to say that. The other thing I will say is so I
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mentioned the naked gun thumbs up guy that gave me the wink to the camera,
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and then you have the guy in court that tried the gloves on those
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black gloves, and what was the saying if the glove don't fit, you
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must have quit Johnny Cochrane's most brilliant legal move, probably of his career.
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But I want to go on with this report because guess what we're going to
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get to lu Terminello's take on this because of the sports world. Well,
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people may not remember OJ Simpson was very much part of the Monday Night Football
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crew with Howard Cosell. And here's what he had to say, O J.
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Simpson is I have a special place in my heart. We were friends,
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we were close friends, and now there's nothing to say except that the
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law must take its cost for a person like myself who has been close to
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O. J. Simpson, very Clark. Indeed, it's almost more than
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that. Is OJ Simpson's friend Howard Cosell, and so many of his friends
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that we, as we have heard throughout the evening, have been stunned and
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disbelieving about what has happened involving O. J. Simpson. I will say
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this before we go to Lou Terminal's take. The fact that he was surrounded
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by loved ones and actually friends did go out to see him before his final
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days means that he did not alienate everybody. And as I asked, Lou,
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where were you June seventeenth, nineteen ninety four, Well, I was.
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I was here in New Jersey. Was I was with the New Jersey
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Nets at that time? And I came home that night and was watching the
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NBA Finals between the Knicks and the Houston Rockets, and all of a sudden
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breaking news and it's OJ fleeing law enforcement in the Bronco with his USC teammate
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Al Collings, who who was a terrific football player played in the NFL.
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Terrific football player at USC. When OJ won the Heisman Trophy led USC to
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a Rose Bowl victory over Indiana, and that night was surreal. It really
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was, because finally NBC news what they did. And you gotta remember that
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that was still the day before these over the air networks had backups, like
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they couldn't say go to MSNBC now or go to CNBC to watch the rest
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of the Knick game, so they didn't exist at that time. NBC didn't
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own USA networks, they couldn't say go to USA network, so it was
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just NBC. So what NBC did as if following the Bronco over in the
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lower right corner was the Nick game and you know, like you're watching on
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a smaller than a cell phone and picture, Yeah, it was. It
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was crazy. Alex I was two years old and I was on the floor
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of my apartment. I don't know why I remember this, but I do
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remember the Bronco on TV. I do remember watching it on the television.
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I guess even at that age, it was just something you won't ever forget.
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But you know, to me, there's two different ojs. I'll remember
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the OJ that gave that big thumbs up on the Howartzer tank in the Naked
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Gun you know, there's that, there's that OJ, and then there's the
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guy who was putting on the gloves in the courtroom that said, if you
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can't fit, if your gloves don't fit, it won't you can't. You
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know, you can acquire or something that the glove. If the love doesn't
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fit, you must have quit. Now, in the late sixties, when
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O. J. Simpson came out of I believe it was San Francisco Junior
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College and to play his two years at USC. And remember at that time
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there was no early entry into the NFL, so he played his junior and
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senior years for USC, and he was just remarkable. He was a remarkable
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football player. He was must see TV as an athlete. He was rafted
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number one by the Bills, a pathetic Buffalo Bills team and only showed glimpses
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of his greatness the first couple of years. Then Lou Saban became the head
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coach of the Buffalo Bills, and he turned the offense totally around, centered
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around. OJ. Came up with an offensive line called the Electric Company,
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and there was a tremendous offensive line and the Bills were setting all kinds of
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NFL records for rushing in the season, and of course oj was the first
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running back to run for two thousand yards. Remember it was only a fourteen
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game season at that time, and he captivated America. He obviously he didn't
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come out of nowhere. We knew who he was. He was drafted number
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one overall. He won Heisman trophies. He won the Rose Bowl, which
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at that time was very, very very important. It was always Pac ten
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versus Big ten, and that rivalry was like none other between conferences. Playing
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the NFL, I saw him play because I was a Jets season ticket holder.
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I saw him play against the Jets four or five times. There was
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one time. This was in nineteen seventy five. Nineteen seventy five, Yes,
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and the Jets that held him the whole game. The Jets were ahead.
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I believe they were head by twenty three to seventeen. I might be
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a little bit wrong on the score. But they had bottled him up all
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day. They keyed on him. They bottled him up well. He takes
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a little swing pass midway through the fourth quarter, takes a little swing pass
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at the line of scrimmage, runs through the whole York Jet team swirling,
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and he had just say such great balance and took that screen pass for a
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touchdown and the Bills won the game. To see him run was it was
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exhilarating. It was at another level. His running style was you know,
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unique. I know Jimmy Brown said that he you know, he didn't like
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some of his running style. But the guy's running style was spectacular. He
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was, like I said, he was much must watch TV. He made
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you jump out of your seat. He was so hard to tackle and you
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know the obviously like all running backs, he he wore down. He ended
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up his career with the Niners for a couple of years and really they didn't
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do anything. But OJ was on the other side of the hill at that
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time and then became America's darling. Everybody in America loved O. J.
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Simpson, whether it was whether it was as you said it and naked done.
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He was on TV shows he was I believe, yeah it was ny
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and football wasn't He was comator on Monday Night Football. He was a longtime
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sideline reporter for NBC Sports for their their NFL football package on Sunday afternoons.
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He was a spokesman for Isa Tona Gloves. There's you know there is uh.
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I believe there was a spot where he's actually holding the gloves are so
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easy to wear. You can even hold my Heisman trophy. Everybody loved OJ
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and then did that horrible situation came up where you know, he got you
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know, where he got involved and uh got acquitted. But obviously a lot
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of people don't think that that was fair. But whatever. But that's the
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other side of OJ that we want. We want to think of the OJ
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that that America loved, the football player, the TV personality, and the
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funny man. He actually was really funny and me he was he had it
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all, He had it all, and he threw it away and then you
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know, he gets this, he gets a second wind and he goes and
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you know, steals his own memorabilia. I mean, do you think you
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don't think it was CTE or anything like that that led him to do some
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of these things that you know, I have to be honest with you.
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I have thought, I have thought about that. I don't know, you
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know, obviously I'm not a neurologist. I've never heard I don't know if
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he was ever checked by a neurologists, but who knows? Who knows?
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I mean, I don't know. It's just a same shame because he really
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had he really had the uh, he had everything going for him. Yet
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everything going for him, And I mean College Football Hall of Famer, NFL
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Hall of Famer on the Bill's Ring of honor. The Bills have had a
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lot of great four players. They went to the Super Bowl four straight times,
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a remarkable achievement. Uh, with Kelly and Andre Reid and all those
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guys. Bruce Smith, I mean, I would say O. J.
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Simpson is still the greatest Buffalo Bill. But they've had so many, so
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many great players. But it's a shame the way it came to an end.
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And I didn't even know that he had the prostate cancer. I did
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not. I did not know that until I got the alert this morning that
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he passed away. I guess it is a weird day because normally we mourn,
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but I know there's a sector that won't in a sense more in his
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law. It's very weirdy, it's the weirdest thing ever. It's very it
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is very bizarre. It's very weird because in a sense, he was a
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cultural icon. He was a cultural He went from he went from cultural icon,
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sports icon to really in most people's mind a cultural villain, and and
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it's it's really it's it's really strange. I like to think of oj watching
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the watching the Rose Bowl and him beating Indiana in the Rose Bowl game and
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the famous game against Gary Bieben and Ucla Biban I believe had won the Heisman
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Trophy. He was a quarterback for UCLA, had won the Heisman Trophy the
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year before, and I think they were one two. I think I think
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USC was one and UCLA was two, and they were playing for a Rose
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Bowl bid. At that time, both UCLA and USC played at the Los
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Angeles Coliseum. Now USC just plays at the Coliseum and UCLA plays at the
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home games at the Rose Bowl. Again, he took a hand off midway
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I would say, midway through the fourth quarter, went left, cut back
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to the middle, went ran through the whole UCLA team beat UCLA twenty one
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to twenty. Ucla missed an extra point earlier in the game, which was
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a difference in the game. That was a remarkable a remarkable game that was
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on ABC and ALEX. You gotta remember in those days before nineteen eighty four
20:07
and the Congress overthrew the NCAA saying that they can only televised one or two
20:17
games a day. That was it, not the thirty games that you see
20:19
on TV nowadays. That was one of the games at ABC televised that day,
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and it was a classic USC UCLA game. Well, it's kind of
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odd that it has happened at the time of the I'm watching there's the clip
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right now with the thumbs up. I'm seeing that right now on the New
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York Post website. The PAC twelve dissipates OJ. It just I don't know,
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I guess like you that way. It's true. It's true, as
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is the PAC twelve dissolves and OJ's no longer with us. See. My
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thought was it could be a sign that thirty years later the Rangers, uh
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might have a Stanley Cup. I mean, the guy made the news on
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the on the day of the parade. I mean, there's got to be
21:07
some synchronicity to this team. Now. I don't know. I just feel
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thirty years later, something's got to give you the rate. You could be
21:12
right, you could be right. We'll see what signs are are ahead for
21:18
us here. But I just want to get your taken for me again.
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It's just it's it's a very bittersweet kind of day because it really is Alex,
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because he was a marvel to watch and I got to watch him growing
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up on The Naked Gun. I mean, there were some things I liked
21:32
about the guy, and he was so funny. Oh and and of course
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he uh I didn't get to watch him play, but his charisma was so
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glaring even through the television screen no matter where he saw him, right,
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you used the right word charisma. He was charismatic and everything that he that
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he did either on the screens, I'm guessing not seeing the true crime stuff
21:59
because you don't want to think him that way. I mean there's been a
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lot of true crime series on this guy too. I mean it's just I
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try not to watch that stuff, to be honest with you, Yeah,
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I don't watch that stuff either, Alex. I really don't. But here
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we are, and now that Bronco is going to be on for a long
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time the next few days, and you know, it is kind of comforting
22:23
to though he was surrounded by friends and family. I mean, he didn't
22:26
totally alienate everybody in the world. Maybe people thought he did, but he
22:30
still had his circle, right, I guess I guess he did. You
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know, I'm sure he had. I'm sure his family was around him and
22:44
you know, as he passed away today. But I mean he, like
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I said, he threw it all the way and he really It's really sad
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and is That's what it is at the end of the days. It's just
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sad kind of day because this guy could have been really idolized by so many
23:04
more people with all his things going for him. But you know what,
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that's why I want to get your take on it, because I don't know
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the whole sports history of him. You know it better than anybody else.
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That's why he turned to Terminello's take for news events like this and it is
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a news event and at sports event all in one. Yep. But sure
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is. And one last thing. He continued his social media career. He
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did have a Twitter account TikTok. I mean, he was still very vocal
23:30
towards the end. I don't know if you know that, but he was
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still online and talking about different topics of the day. I know he was
23:37
online. I know he commented on a lot of different topics, but I
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didn't. I mean I don't, as you know, I don't follow I've
23:45
gotten out of a lot of social media for a lot of different reasons.
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And that's I guess what made ojoj because no matter what happened, he was
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just out. He was he spoke his mind no matter what. Yeah,
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I did. Well that's that. We are going to move on now to
24:03
something great tomorrow with Dave Popgin a little lighter note as Seaton Hall brought home
24:10
the n I T And you know, I just think it's great both championships
24:12
staying in the Biggie in the in the Eastern seaboard here with Ukon and see
24:17
now we'll get into that so some brighter days ahead, right Lou, Absolutely
24:22
all right. That's it for today on the Alex Scatt Podcast Network