O.J. Simpson Says His Confession Wasn’t a Confession
In an interview recorded 12 years ago and only airing last Sunday, O.J. Simpson totally confessed to killing his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, the world’s unluckiest waiter. Only he told The Buffalo News that it wasn’t a confession.
“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!”
That’s… an interesting way to look at it. Simpson also added that he considers himself to be retired.
“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.”
“That whole L.A. thing” is an interesting euphemism for a brutal double homicide. That’s like John Wayne Gacy saying he doesn’t want to focus on “that whole children’s birthday party thing”.
Of course, there is a lot more for O.J. to talk about. He is one of the all-time greatest football players. And there’s something that goes along with a storied NFL career that the NFL would rather we not think about, but that may have been a contributing factor to the murders that O.J. says he didn’t confess to that he totally confessed to: CTE.
“I get concerned,” he said. “I do recognize that it probably affects you in short-term memory more than long-term.
“I know with me, I have days I can’t find words. I literally cannot find words or the name of somebody I know. That gets a little scary. Those days happen when I’m tired.
“I have a few friends that have symptoms …”
Simpson’s words suddenly became drawn out, spaces of seeming introspection after each period.
“… and older friends that have it full-bore.”
Pause.
“It is horrible to see.”
Pause.
“My buddy A.C. [former high school, USC and Bills teammate Al Cowlings], my closest, oldest friend, I see he’s short-tempered now.”
Pause.
“A guy who has never been short-tempered.”
Pause.
“I see he’s struggling just a little bit.”
I think it will be interesting to see if Simpson actually does have CTE. It’s believed that CTE was a contributing factor to former professional wrestler Chris Benoit’s murder-suicide. CTE can cause aggression and memory loss, which are consistent with how Simpson described becoming irrationally angry when Ron Goldman showed up at his estranged wife’s house and then having no memory of what happened next in his non-confession confession.
It’s worth mentioning, however, that unlike Benoit and (probably) Simpson, plenty of people with CTE don’t kill their wives. But it could be a contributing factor.
