our next guest is a Heisman Trophy winner and a two-time All-American since he left pro football
this man has been an actor a commercial spokesman and a sports commentator this season he is joining
NBC Sports pregame NFL live and is the last guest we'll ever be allowed to have from NBC Sports
ladies and gentlemen here is O.J Simpson [Applause]
yeah how you been I've known you I've known you we're not we're not close we're not really uh but
we've known each other for a long time haven't we uh have we I think so we met I met you two weeks
ago no come on knock that off this was when uh when NBC had the the rights to the Moscow
Olympics remember yeah we thought we're going to all go back there and go to Moscow rather
than do it unfortunately Mr Carter and his wisdom decided that uh we should not athletes should not
participate because of other problems so the United States stayed home NBC had no Olympics
that year and well but anyway uh welcome uh to NB welcome back to NBC though yeah a few years
ago back then I was working not really in sports I was producing film for them and uh of course I was
going to do the Olympics because I had worked up for Donald Meyer before Mr cufflinks Don
ulmeyer uh and then what are you going to be doing now with Bob Costas well we're going
to be doing the Sunday pregame show NFL live I'm looking forward to it because you know I'm one of
these guys that every Sunday I got house full of guys and we're talking about football now I have
to come to New York and I get paid to do the same thing I would be doing in my living room um um Let
me let me ask you about your childhood what kind of kid were you kind of kid was that yeah I don't
remember that's a long ago no I was a good kid I guess I got in trouble a lot I was aggressive like
most kids brothers and sisters uh one brother Two Sisters I grew up in San Francisco at the absolute
best time you could be growing up anyway as far as I was concerned it was the middle of the 60s all
of a sudden the uh beatniks were my age they were hippies and all the girls were running away coming
to San Francisco looking for places to live me and my boys would find them places to stay in the park
show them to the park would you I thought it was a great time to be in San Francisco I was
a little aggressive got into a little trouble but uh for the most part Sports pulled me out
of there yeah yeah you play Let's see if I can remember this you played some ball junior
college ball and then you went to USC yeah I went to a high school in San Francisco called
Galileo so when I got out of high school I didn't get any uh scholarship offers uh it
wasn't because of my grades I had pretty decent grades but I was a home economics major you know
no when I left High School I couldn't read or write but I could cook my butt off
and so then you go to the the junior I went to City College of San Francisco and it was
a good time because a lot of guys are you know coming back from the Army uh getting out of jail
so we had a lot of great players there and we we want to we want to we won a lot of games and
then all the schools are after yeah how did you get your um how did you get your name how what
was the selection process no I know it's orenthal Oriental James arenthal James what is the meaning
of that what is the significance there well I I my mother has uh four sisters and they had a
rule that when each sister would have a child uh uh one of the sisters would name him and my
mother's younger sister uh named me it was her turn she named me Arnold she named my cousin
uh garcelle and since she was the youngest of the sisters uh when it came time for her to
name her own children she said the deal is off and she named her kids Stanley stew [Laughter]
do you know other uh a rentals have you heard uh no it's the only one I've ever heard of she told
me he was a french actor that she saw somewhere it didn't sound French to me so that's a nice bit
of distinguishing uh yeah I can't grow up yeah I hated it you know you grew up your football
player and you had a lot of nicknames too I would guess huh yeah yeah I got sort of a big head you
know so when I was a kid my head was the same size uh as when I was like 10 as it is now so
about you know I had skinny neck skinny body and the boys call me headquarters yeah
not bad water head once in a while but you know when I got older I met Richard Burton I
did a movie with Richard Burton years ago and he noticed my head it was called a klansman
it was funny the other day I was in I was really in Kentucky at Cincinnati and the film evidently
was on and this was a show that a bunch of Ku Klux klaners that killed my buddy and I was
out killing you know getting even for my buddy sure and uh so we're in Cincinnati well a buddy
of mine named Doug Warsaw and this guy came up to us two nights ago and says man juice I saw
you in this movie and man you were you were you were the bad guy you were killing all of these
guys that's I wasn't a bad guy I was killing all these klansmen you say here you were the bad guy
well we'll be right back here with uh Mr Simpson O.J Simpson is with us you know
NBC Sports hates us now they're mad at us yeah I don't want to be a part of that do what you
can to clean it up for us uh you ever had any trouble speeding tickets that kind of thing
I don't know if I should say this I I got stopped uh not recently about a year ago I
was it was late at night where was this I was in Southern California you know California's finest
the highway patrol and I was trying to get from a place in Reseda where we're shooting in Christ
to Laguna now I knew I was tired so I figured the best thing to do since you're tired is to
get there quickly that's right the quicker I get there the safer America is going to be in
bed soon taking a nap yeah yeah so that was my that was a logic behind what I was doing
San Diego Freeway San Diego Freeway I'm in the Testarossa and I decided that nobody else was
on the road and I was going I think I got it up oh you don't want to hear this yeah [Applause]
yeah I got it up pretty fast I got it up to about 170 miles [Applause]
and uh give me your license give me your license right now [Applause]
170. well I didn't there was nobody on the road and this car is really saferosa
you should have been with me this morning and try to explain that I think everybody
once in a while got carried away but anyway I'm going down there's no car but one car on
the road and he's way over there and as I went by this car I said that was a cop and uh even
before he turned his lights on I pulled over I stopped and about 10 minutes later he pulled up
[Applause] [Music]
man and now did you get ticketed for that he asked me how fast was I going I'd say
oh I don't know maybe 80 or 90. you're going a little faster than that I said
here you drive this car let's see you drive this car 55 miles an hour he got a kick out
of that gave me a ticket see I don't think in California they have radar so so he really was
uh taking you at your word they do have radar they got those guns they you know CHP yeah
but I don't think no I don't I don't think CHP has the radar maybe they don't they they have
helicopters 170 and you have your license well uh you know what I did 95 I don't have a lot
I volunteered I voluntarily I voluntarily after that didn't drive my Testarossa for for a month
Bill Hicks a very funny young gentleman was to be here tonight he will be with
us on Tuesday have a great season nice to see you again Buffalo Bills [Music]