Apr 12, 2024 5 min read

By Dale Lolley

For the Observer-Reporter

dugan@observer-reporter.com

The death of O.J. Simpson on Thursday from cancer at the age of 76 closes the door on a situation that was a black eye for the NFL and, let’s face it, our country as a whole.

Simpson, of course, was a highly decorated Pro Football Hall of Fame member, a former 2,000-yard rusher with the Buffalo Bills and a Heisman Trophy winner. He was a broadcaster on NFL games after his playing career was over. He starred in television commercials.

He was also very likely a guy who got away with the murder of two people, his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in 1994.

Simpson was famously acquitted of those murders in 1995, but he lost a civil lawsuit filed by Goldman’s family to the tune of $3.5 million, a settlement that forced him to – among other things – sell his Heisman Trophy to raise cash.

But he lost far more than that.

Even though he was found not guilty, anyone with a brain in their head knew that was probably not the case. Simpson’s off-field career was done.

And though the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NFL never officially stripped him of his status as one of the all-time greats, what happened after that might have been even worse. Simpson was just never mentioned or brought up – like he never existed.

Oh, he’s still in the Buffalo Bills’ Ring of Honor. But even the Bills stopped recognizing one of their all-time greats.

Now, with Simpson gone, we’ll see if that changes. Chances are, that won’t be the case.

Simpson will be another sad footnote in the history of the NFL and this country.

• The NFL schedule should be released in about a month.

One thing we do know is that the Steelers won’t have any international games again in 2024.

But that’s unlikely to happen again in 2025. Expect the Steelers to play a game in Mexico next year.

• With Connecticut winning back-to-back national championships in men’s basketball, the Huskies have now won six NCAA titles.

That’s tied with North Carolina for third-most on the all-time list behind UCLA (11) and Kentucky (8).

It’s also one more than Duke and Indiana.

But Connecticut is never mentioned when talk turns to the “blue bloods” of college basketball. But the Huskies should be. They are currently the bluest of the blue bloods. UCLA hasn’t won a title since 1995. Kentucky hasn’t won since 2012. North Carolina won its first title in 1957 and its sixth in 2017.

Connecticut? The Huskies’ first title came in 1999, meaning Connecticut has won six titles in the past 25 years.

• Fans at PNC Park booed Pirates closer David Bednar last Tuesday after he blew his third save of the season, allowing four runs in the top of the ninth inning against the Tigers in a 5-3 loss.

Bednar is a two-time all-star and Mars native. Following the game, one of the newest Pirates, first baseman Rowdy Tellez, chastised those who booed Bednar, saying, “This is the pride of Pittsburgh to everybody. We don’t do that here.”

That Pirates fans were booing Bednar after his third blown save of the season – he had two all of last season – shows how expectations have changed for the team.

There’s little doubt he’s going through a rough patch to open the season. But he also didn’t pitch much in spring training due to an injury, appearing in just two games in Florida before the season began.

“We’re a good team. We’re winning for a reason,” Tellez said. “We’re going to get our man back on track. But what happened (Tuesday) was, I think, unacceptable. We, as a group in Pittsburgh, have got to be better. He’s an All-Star for a reason, and we just have to be better.”

Bednar has been one of the best closers in baseball in the previous three seasons. He’ll get it back.

On one hand, Tellez is right. Sometimes, fans are too quick to boo a player for a bad performance or performances. On the other hand, do they think the player is trying to do that?

In Bednar’s case, he has a proven track record of being very good. Booing him for not being good in a few games doesn’t paint those who did so in a very good light.

But, the fans also have been very supportive of Bednar – and the Pirates. In the case of the former, it’s been justified. In the case of the latter, perhaps not so much.

And that, as much as anything, was perhaps why fans were booing.

Dale Lolley hosts The Drive on Steelers Nation Radio and writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.