When an unverified Twitter account with the name TheRealOJ32 posted a video of the former, uhh, Bills running back announcing his entrance into the Twitter world, I’ll admit that I wasn’t 100% convinced that it was real. Even when I decided to quickly share it on this site, there was a small part of me that thought I had fallen for someone getting Simpson to do one of those personalized clips on Cameo—like with what happened to Brett Favre.
But those doubts have been brushed aside over the past 24 hours thanks to official confirmation from Simpson’s attorney, Malcolm LaVergne, according to CNN.
“Mr. Simpson is the most positive person I’ve ever met,” LaVergne told CNN. “He’s also very well informed on current events. He will not be negative. Nor will he comment on the LA thing. It will be one of the best accounts on Twitter to follow.”
Of course, anyone who saw the first video that his account posted noted that he made an interesting comment towards the end: “[Twitter] should be a lot of fun. I’ve got a little getting even to do. So God bless, take care.” If what LaVergne says is true in terms of Simpson not addressing “the LA thing,” then it’s hard to imagine what other areas of life he feels like he needs to “get even” in. With only that one video as evidence, it felt like the best-case scenario there is that O.J. hopped on Twitter because he recently saw a tweet that called into question his rushing talent, or something.
But then, as new users on that hellsite are wont to do, Simpson posted again. This time, there was someone else holding the camera as he stood in front of a pool and addressed “Twitter world” for the second time.
“Hey Twitter world! You know, for years people have been able to say whatever they want to say about me with no accountability. But now I get to challenge a lot of that BS and set the record straight. More importantly, I’ll be able to talk about everything, especially sports and fantasy football, and even politics. But for now let me just say, to my fellow fathers out there: happy Father’s Day.”
Again, his choice of words there really seems to imply that he’s going to spend at least some of his time on Twitter reminding people that the jury acquitted him for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman—especially since it’s probably not a coincidence that his decision to join Twitter fell on 25th anniversary of their deaths. There’s always a chance that this assumption is incorrect, and that he’s really more focused on setting the record straight over something like the Las Vegas robbery he was involved in, but there’s not a lot of evidence over the course of Simpson’s career to suggest that he’s always the most aware of the implications of his actions. Remember, this is the guy who thought it’d be funny to scare an interviewer after his trial by jumping from behind a door and miming a stabbing motion with a banana.
There are two possibilities behind Simpson’s choice to join Twitter halfway through 2019, one more likely than the other: either he has been so out of the loop that he only just found out what Twitter was, or someone on his team has informed him about the cult of personality one can easily build on that site nowadays, regardless of what has (or “has not”) happened in your past. I’m going to take a wild guess and say that the latter is what happened. Simpson is probably hoping that he can remake his public image through one of humanity’s worst inventions and that the resulting following will help restore a bit of the legacy he once had.
There’s something to be said about Twitter being the only social media platform O.J. felt comfortable joining, and there’s really something to be said about the world we live in now where the best case scenario for this shit is that his feed features shitty football takes and the occasional mild-mannered tweet in support of our big wet president.