OJ Simpson's former NBC Sports co

Release time：2024-05-08 05:29:56 Source：Culture Canvas news portal

OJ Simpson's former NBC co-host Bob Costas revealed the 'awkward' joke the accused murder made during a 1994 jail visit ahead of his infamous trial for the murders of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman.

Appearing on NBC's Today Show on Friday, a day after Simpson died from cancer, Costas recalled visiting his long-time colleague at an LA jail, where the two were separated by a pane of glass.

Costas happened to have a bandaged cut on his hand at the time of the visit, which caught the retired running back's eye as the two men greeted each other by pressing their palms against the glass partition.

'When I put [my hand] up there, and he saw the bandage and a little drop of blood, he said, ''Wait a minute, wait a minute. You did it,'' Costas said, remembering his surprise.

'I just thought in that moment, it was an attempt at an awkward situation to lighten the mood, if that was possible. I didn't read anything more into it than that, but it was a little weird.'

In an interview with TODAY, legendary sports broadcaster Bob Costas discusses the death of O.J. Simpson and the “complicated legacy” he leaves behind.

“He was very good company,” he says, “And then all of that (…) changed one night in June of 1994.” pic.twitter.com/Yq3yfLUFN5

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 12, 2024

Bob Costas (left) and OJ Simpson (right) were long-time NBC Sports colleagues before 1994

While much of America prepared to watch Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals, OJ was off running 

Of course, Costas wasn't the only one with a cut on his hand. Investigators noticed several cuts on Simpson's arms and hands during their examination – injuries the Hall of Famer claimed he suffered by breaking a glass when he learned that Brown had been killed.

Costas' story was part of a poignant segment with the famed broadcaster, who described Simpson as 'good company,' while making it clear that he thought his former colleague was guilty of killing Brown and Goldman.

'What I'm about to say doesn't mitigate the crime that he most obviously committed,' Costas said.

'It's a complicated legacy, to put it mildly,' Costas said. 'I can't think of anyone historical or someone that we may have known where the first chapter and the second chapter of their lives are such a stark contrast.

'Yes, I knew him well. All of us at NBC Sports, and throughout NBC who interacted with him, liked him very much.

Police pursue the Ford Bronco driven by Al Cowlings, carrying O.J. Simpson in June of 1994

Costas, 72, spent years working alongside Simpson on NBC's NFL coverage, only to end up announcing the LAPD's infamous car chase with the accused murder on July 17, 1994. That pursuit ended with Simpson being arrested, charged with double homicide and ultimately acquitted in the 'trial of the century' before he was found liable for the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend in a 1996 civil trial.

'He was a hale fellow very well met. And then all of that, in our perception and public perception, changed one night in June of 1994,' Costas added.

Of course, the deaths of Brown and Goldman were not the first troubling signs surrounding Simpson, who would later serve prison time in Nevada for an armed robbery.

Brown claimed in 1989 that police visited the couple's home eight times for domestic violence, and even if Costas was unaware of every instance, Simpson ultimately pleaded no contest to spousal abuse later that year.

By 1992, Brown filed for divorce, although Simpson continued working for NBC Sports until 1994, when the infamous police chase unfolded on the LA freeways.

Costas was navigating viewers between the OJ chase and Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals 

As any American of a certain age can remember, the chase took place during Game 5 of the NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks, meaning Costas had to navigate the audience between Marv Albert's call from Madison Square Garden and newsman Tom Brokaw's description of the chase.

'NBC was in a unique position,' Costas recalled. 'Every other network, every cable entity went live and carried it for hours upon hours. But we had not just a basketball game, an NBA Finals game, involving the No. 1 market in the country, not incidentally, the New York Nicks against the Houston Rockets.

'Throughout that evening, Marv Albert was calling the game. Sometimes, he'd throw it to me. I would then transition to Tom Brokaw, who was at 30 Rock. He would summarize the situation, which he called a Shakespearean tragedy, and it certainly fit that description.

Simpson worked as both a studio analyst and sideline reporter for NBC's NFL coverage

'And then I'd send it back to Marv Albert. And other times, we'd split the screen, so [Knicks center Patrick] Ewing and [Rockets center Hakeem] Olajuwon would be going at it at Madison Square Garden and the Bronco would be making its way slowly down the 405 the other side of the screen. It was surreal, to put it mildly.'

As Costas later discovered (and previously revealed), Simpson was trying toc all him in studio during the infamous pursuit.

The two discussed Simpson's attempt to reach Costas during the aforementioned jailhouse visit.

'I asked O.J., 'What would make you think in that moment that you'd want to speak with me?' Costas remembered. 'And he said, 'I was being defamed by the media,' not so much about the allegations, which were then fresh about the allegations of the crime, but that his overall character and the life he had led was being defamed.

'And somehow he thought that someone who was his friend, as well as his colleague, could perhaps, in effect, act as a character witness.

'And what I didn't bother to tell him, since it was a moot point, was that if he had gotten through to me and if he had agreed to go on the air, then I would've had to ask him some very pointed questions.'

Costas, like fellow announcer Al Michaels, went from being friends and co-workers with Simpson to ultimately believing he was guilty.

'He kept saying the same thing to me,' Michaels wrote in 2014. 'How can anybody think I did this?' Not, 'I didn't do it.' In retrospect, that should have been a clear signal to me that something wasn't right.'

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