Base football player

Seattle Seahawks President Tim Ruskell is an interesting guy. His first job in the NFL was ballboy, he once worked as a DJ, now it is likely he will be named NFL Executive of the Year. At one time he was a visiting team’s locker-room manager for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. During this time, according to Ruskell:
“We were playing Buffalo, and O.J. Simpson comes walking in about five hours before the game,” Ruskell said. “He befriends us. He’s talking to us and he’s practicing something for NBC. He’s going to be Othello.

“So he asks us, my guys and us, if we could read some parts. He had all these little scripts because he’s practicing his lines. We’re a bunch of idiots, don’t know what the hell we’re doing, and he is doing his lines.

“It was quick and then it was over. Didn’t think anything of it. But as I look back, doing Shakespeare with O.J. … that was a bizarre one.”
I can’t find a listing of O.J. playing Othello. Is Ruskell’s memory wrong? Not necessarily. O.J. may have been cast in the role but the play may never have been performed (or else never televised) for some reason. Or is Ruskell being funny on purpose?

Comments

  1. According to Wikepedia, O.J. Simpson was considered and turned down for the part of The Terminator (before Arnold S. was chosen for it), because he didn't look evil enough.

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  2. I didn't know that...the Terminator's mission is to terminate a blonde woman, too.

    Some people think O.J. Simpson was framed because of his role in the movie 'Capricorn One'. I try and avoid these people, but I can't resist bringing them up.

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  3. This may sound incredible, but it happened (this is how I'm going to preface everything I say from now on incredible or not, having discovered Tide Online) but shortly before the Simpson murders, when I was living in L.A., a television series I had never seen before started airing on late night. Apparently it had a short run before cancellation, or maybe never made it to prime time; but it was about a professional football team and featured O.J. as a young coach (masterfully portrayed). In the episode I saw, O.J.'s character was tempted to cheat on his wife by a floozie, but his conscience wouldn't let him go through with it. The episode also featured Al Cowlings in a small role (masterfully portrayed).

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  4. I was taught in school that in the original version of the play Othello's friend Alfonso tries to spirit Othello out of town on a slow white horse. Is that weird or what?

    ReplyDelete

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