The recent death of OJ Simpson from cancer on April 10th brought back some memories of when I lived in New York City. The picture above was taken back in the mid-1990s on Avenue A in NYC – around the same time that OJ Simpson was on trial for the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. I was struck by the coincidence that the names of the two partners in this electrical contracting company (no longer in existence) would be “Brown & Simpson.” I wonder how many people called them at the time and made comments related to the news? It was probably not a fun time to have that company name.
Another memory of OJ Simpson while living in NYC took place on June 17th, 1994. I’ll never forget how OJ and the events of the Bronco car chase totally messed up my enjoyment of Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the Houston Rockets. I was (and am) very much a Knicks fan, and was excited about the chances of Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley and the crew bringing home a championship. I was watching the game with like-minded friends, and we were all a bit surprised when the game was interrupted with coverage of the OJ car chase taking place in Los Angeles. It was certainly an interesting development, but the low-speed aspect of the “chase” and the fact that the view of the Bronco and the cops in pursuit going down the highway remained unchanged for quite some time, made it a bit frustrating that the game was short-shifted to a picture-in-picture treatment. Even the announcers’ “play-by-play” focused on OJ, and not the game. Would a similar injustice take place during the World Series or the Super Bowl? Even with OJ as a former NFL star, I doubt it.
As far as collectibles, remember that while OJ Simpson never went to jail for murder, he did go to jail for multiple charges relating to an armed robbery in Las Vegas in which he and some accomplices broke into a hotel room to retrieve memorabilia that he claimed had been stolen from him. Speaking of OJ-related collectibles, I have a variety of OJ Simpson football cards which – despite OJ’s on-field success – never really took off in value due to his off-the-field activities and reputation. If anyone out there wants to pick up some OJ Simpson football cards, let me know in the comments section below.
