OJ Simpson’s former NBC Sports co-host Bob Costas reveals ‘awkward’ joke accused murderer made to him during their brief jail visit ahead of the 1994 trial: ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute – you did it!’

Former NBC host OJ Simpson’s Bob Costas revealed the “awkward” joke the murder accused made during a 1994 prison visit ahead of his infamous trial for the murders of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman.

Appears on NBC’s Today show On Friday, a day after Simpson died of cancer, Costas recalled a visit to his old colleague in an LA jail, where the two were separated by a pane of glass.

Costas happened to have a bandaged cut on his hand during the visit, which caught the retired running back’s attention 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 at the time that it was an attempt to create an awkward situation to lighten the mood, if that was possible.” That’s all I read into it, but it was a bit strange.’

Bob Costas (left) and OJ Simpson (right) were longtime colleagues at NBC Sports before 1994

While much of America prepared for Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals, OJ was on the run

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

Costas’ story was part of a moving segment with the famed broadcaster, who described Simpson as “good company” as he made it clear he believed his former colleague was guilty of murdering Brown and Goldman.

“What I’m about to say doesn’t soften the crime he clearly committed,” Costas said.

“It’s a complicated legacy, to say the least,” Costas said. “I can’t think of anyone historically or anyone 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 at NBC who interacted with him, really liked him.

Police chase the Ford Bronco driven by Al Cowlings with OJ Simpson on board in June 1994

Costas, 72, worked with Simpson for years on NBC’s NFL coverage, eventually announcing the LAPD’s infamous car chase with the accused murder on July 17, 1994. That chase ended when Simpson was arrested, charged with double murder and ultimately acquitted. the ‘trial of the century’ before he was found liable in a civil trial in 1996 for the deaths of his ex-wife and her boyfriend.

“He was a healthy guy who was very well met. And then all that changed, both in our perception and in public perception, one evening in June 1994,” Costas added.

Of course, Brown and Goldman’s deaths weren’t the first troubling signs surrounding Simpson, who would later serve a prison sentence in Nevada for 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 each instance, Simpson ultimately pleaded no contest to spousal abuse later that year.

In 1992, Brown filed for divorce, although Simpson continued to work for NBC Sports until 1994, when the infamous police chase took place on the LA freeways.

Costas navigated 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 the New York Knicks, which meant Costas had to navigate the crowd between Marv Albert’s call from Madison Square Garden and reporter Tom Brokaw’s description. of the chase.

“NBC was in a unique position,” Costas recalls. “Every other network, every cable entity went live and carried it for hours. But we didn’t have just any basketball game, an NBA Finals game, involving the No. 1 market in the country, and not coincidentally: the New York Nicks versus the Houston Rockets.

‘Marv Albert was on the phone all evening. Sometimes he threw it at me. I would then switch 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 a sideline reporter for NBC’s NFL coverage

“And then I would send it back to Marv Albert. And other times we split the screen, so [Knicks center Patrick] Ewing and [Rockets center Hakeem] Olajuwon was going to do it at Madison Square Garden and the Bronco was going to slowly drive along the 405 on the other side of the screen. It was surreal to say the least.”

As Costas later discovered (and previously revealed), Simpson tried to get him all in the studio during the infamous car chase.

The two discussed Simpson’s attempt to reach Costas during the aforementioned jail visit.

“I asked OJ, ‘What would make you think at that moment that you would want to speak to me?’ Costas remembered. “And he said, ‘I was vilified by the media,’ not so much about the allegations, which were still new at the time about the allegations of the crime, but that his general character and the life he had led were vilified.

“And somehow he thought that someone who was both his friend and his colleague might be able to act as a character witness.

“And what I didn’t bother telling 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, I would ask him some very bad questions should have stated. sharp questions.’

Costas, like fellow broadcaster Al Michaels, eventually came to believe from friends and colleagues with Simpson that he was guilty.

“He kept saying the same thing to me,” Michaels wrote in 2014. “How could anyone think I did this?” Not: ‘I didn’t do it.’ In retrospect, that should have been a clear signal to me that something was wrong.’