In his first substantial interview in a decade and his first extensively about football since the '90s, Simpson spoke to The Buffalo News about his time in prison, his life since his release, football, CTE and more.
LAS VEGAS — The dishwasher was chirping, and he couldn't figure out how to turn it off. The thermostat was a mystery. A freshly discovered leak dripped from a large stain in the garage ceiling, and he couldn't locate the cause.
He hunched as he moved around the house, smoothly but with a shuffle more than a glide. Reading glasses perched on his salt-and-pepper head. He wore a black button-up sweater over a white golf shirt, black slacks, black Nike sneakers.
He looked like Mr. Rogers, not the running back who once scored 23 touchdowns in a season, not one of the most infamous men on the planet.
But that baritone voice, that incandescent smile. Yes, this was O.J. Simpson.
And he was ready to sit and talk.
In his first substantial interview in a decade and his first extensively about football since the 1990s, Simpson spoke to The Buffalo News on Monday.
Simpson had myriad other opportunities. Representatives say he has been approached by all the serious news programs, the gossip shows, Oprah Winfrey, the whole media gallery. They say he's been offered big money to tell his story. He declined them all.
"I get so many offers to talk," Simpson, 70, said at the Las Vegas house where he has been staying, "but everybody wants to talk about the crap."
A February interview request from the town where he starred for the Buffalo Bills appealed to him.
There were ground rules: No video; no sensationalized promotion of the interview; questions should be limited to his playing career.
Simpson, however, did not limit his answers to football. He described life as Nevada inmate No. 1027820 inside Lovelock Correctional Center and discussed adjusting to life since being paroled five months ago.
Simpson expressed concerns about CTE, the degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head. He shared thoughts on Ralph Wilson publicly for the first time since the Bills founder's death in 2014. He mused about where he would live once he's allowed to leave Nevada.
He expressed his affection for Buffalo, the Bills and running back LeSean McCoy, especially. He laughed at the idea of Donald Trump buying the team and conveyed disappointment with the NFL's national anthem demonstrations.
Simpson also referenced the two-hour Fox special that aired the night before. "O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession?" was based on a 2006 videotaped interview meant as an infomercial for the ill-conceived and ghostwritten book "If I Did It," a supposed theoretical account of the 1994 murders of Simpson's estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, crimes for which Simpson was tried and acquitted.
"When people want to make money or get ratings," Simpson said, "they're going to pimp me. I'm going to get pimped."
Simpson's friends, many of them former teammates, peppered him Monday morning about the Fox show.
His old pal, former Bills defensive end Sherman White, was among those who phoned with support.
"Listen, if I confessed 12 years ago," Simpson told White through mutual laughter, "you would have heard about it 12 years ago!"
Simpson insisted he doesn't watch anything about his notorious life, not "O.J.: Made in America," the 2016 ESPN documentary that won an Academy Award, not the 2016 FX miniseries "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story," not Sunday night's Fox program.
"I watch nothing of me," Simpson said, between sips of his McCafe coffee. "I didn't watch it because I knew they were all haters, and people will say things that are just not true, and there's nobody there to challenge them, and that would piss me off.
"So why? It's a beautiful day. I'm about to go play golf. Why should I have some crap in my mind? You've got to let it go."
Simpson's tee time was a little more than three hours away. Until then, he let the audio recorder run.
Still behind walls
Simpson has been living in a gated community within a gated community on the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley. The 5,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, 5.5-bath house — alongside Red Rock Country Club's second hole — is owned by friend and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Jim Barnett and otherwise would sit vacant.
From the shade of the back patio, striking contours of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area could be admired beyond the fairway in the foreground. The location is a little too close to the foothills and cliffs to glimpse snow-capped Mount Charleston.
The sun was bright, the air mild and clear. Birds chirped.
"I consider myself a retired person," Simpson said. "I'm totally happy with my life. I've been active my whole life. I had no offseason. Football was the only time I was in one place. I was doing endorsements and running companies.
"I enjoy my retirement."
He paused a beat, then added a clarification.
"I consider it forced retirement; don't get me wrong," Simpson said. "I loved doing 'NFL Live,' doing football games, doing the Olympics. If I never stopped I still would.
"But after the whole L.A. thing I got put in forced retirement, and I got used to forced retirement. It's not bad."
LAS VEGAS — The dishwasher was chirping, and he couldn't figure out how to turn it off. The thermostat was a mystery. A freshly discovered leak dripped from a large stain in the garage ceiling, and he couldn't locate the cause.
He hunched as he moved around the house, smoothly but with a shuffle more than a glide. Reading glasses perched on his salt-and-pepper head. He wore a black button-up sweater over a white golf shirt, black slacks, black Nike sneakers.
He looked like Mr. Rogers, not the running back who once scored 23 touchdowns in a season, not one of the most infamous men on the planet.
But that baritone voice, that incandescent smile. Yes, this was O.J. Simpson.
And he was ready to sit and talk.
In his first substantial interview in a decade and his first extensively about football since the 1990s, Simpson spoke to The Buffalo News on Monday.
Simpson had myriad other opportunities. Representatives say he has been approached by all the serious news programs, the gossip shows, Oprah Winfrey, the whole media gallery. They say he's been offered big money to tell his story. He declined them all.
"I get so many offers to talk," Simpson, 70, said at the Las Vegas house where he has been staying, "but everybody wants to talk about the crap."
A February interview request from the town where he starred for the Buffalo Bills appealed to him.
There were ground rules: No video; no sensationalized promotion of the interview; questions should be limited to his playing career.
Simpson, however, did not limit his answers to football. He described life as Nevada inmate No. 1027820 inside Lovelock Correctional Center and discussed adjusting to life since being paroled five months ago.
Simpson expressed concerns about CTE, the degenerative brain disease caused by repeated blows to the head. He shared thoughts on Ralph Wilson publicly for the first time since the Bills founder's death in 2014. He mused about where he would live once he's allowed to leave Nevada.
He expressed his affection for Buffalo, the Bills and running back LeSean McCoy, especially. He laughed at the idea of Donald Trump buying the team and conveyed disappointment with the NFL's national anthem demonstrations.
Simpson also referenced the two-hour Fox special that aired the night before. "O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession?" was based on a 2006 videotaped interview meant as an infomercial for the ill-conceived and ghostwritten book "If I Did It," a supposed theoretical account of the 1994 murders of Simpson's estranged wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, crimes for which Simpson was tried and acquitted.
"When people want to make money or get ratings," Simpson said, "they're going to pimp me. I'm going to get pimped."
Simpson's friends, many of them former teammates, peppered him Monday morning about the Fox show.
His old pal, former Bills defensive end Sherman White, was among those who phoned with support.
"Listen, if I confessed 12 years ago," Simpson told White through mutual laughter, "you would have heard about it 12 years ago!"
Simpson insisted he doesn't watch anything about his notorious life, not "O.J.: Made in America," the 2016 ESPN documentary that won an Academy Award, not the 2016 FX miniseries "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story," not Sunday night's Fox program.
"I watch nothing of me," Simpson said, between sips of his McCafe coffee. "I didn't watch it because I knew they were all haters, and people will say things that are just not true, and there's nobody there to challenge them, and that would piss me off.
"So why? It's a beautiful day. I'm about to go play golf. Why should I have some crap in my mind? You've got to let it go."
Simpson's tee time was a little more than three hours away. Until then, he let the audio recorder run.
Still behind walls
Simpson has been living in a gated community within a gated community on the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley. The 5,000-square-foot, five-bedroom, 5.5-bath house — alongside Red Rock Country Club's second hole — is owned by friend and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Jim Barnett and otherwise would sit vacant.
From the shade of the back patio, striking contours of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area could be admired beyond the fairway in the foreground. The location is a little too close to the foothills and cliffs to glimpse snow-capped Mount Charleston.
The sun was bright, the air mild and clear. Birds chirped.
"I consider myself a retired person," Simpson said. "I'm totally happy with my life. I've been active my whole life. I had no offseason. Football was the only time I was in one place. I was doing endorsements and running companies.
"I enjoy my retirement."
He paused a beat, then added a clarification.
"I consider it forced retirement; don't get me wrong," Simpson said. "I loved doing 'NFL Live,' doing football games, doing the Olympics. If I never stopped I still would.
"But after the whole L.A. thing I got put in forced retirement, and I got used to forced retirement. It's not bad."
. OJ might be most compelling American figures of all time, nobody had the rise and fall like he did. No wonder he is still somebody we talk about today good and definitely bad.
That's exactly what White America did to him after the murders of Nicole and Ron.
heavy
