For as long as I can remember, longtime journalist Bob Costas has been one of the classiest and most respected people in sports media, having the chance to be the studio host for numerous sporting events like the Olympics and NBA Finals, among others.
And Costas, who recently appeared on Campus Insiders, told that show’s host, Seth Davis, an interesting story that involved Costas and Hall of Fame running back OJ Simpson—and it’s almost unbelievable.
According to Costas, Simpson actually called the studio looking for Bob during the infamous white Bronco chase back in 1994, per FTW.USAToday:
The Friday night of the Bronco chase, I learned subsequently, he tried to call me from the Bronco. He had my home number in St. Louis but nobody was home and the phone just rang and rang. And he also had the number of the studio and we did the NBA show out of the same studio as the NFL show but since it was the Finals I was at Madison Square Garden for Game Five between the Rockets and the Knicks.
So he actually then called the studio and a tech answered the phone ‘studio 3b?’
‘I need to speak to Bob Costas.’
‘He’s not here.’
‘I have to speak to him right now.’
‘Well he’s not here, he’s at Madison Square Garden.’
‘I gotta speak to him.’
‘Who’s calling?’
‘O.J. Simpson.’
As noted, Costas was in Madison Square Garden prepping for the NBA Finals between the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks (as seen above), and famously had to address the audience while trying to balance both intense stories.
The journalist also visited Simpson in prison with one of OJ’s lawyers, Robert Kardashian, and actually admitted to believing that the former running back was guilty, in Costas’ opinion.
No matter how you shake this story, it’s pretty nuts.