O.J. Takes Some Hits but Keeps His Balance and Sense of Teamwork

O.J. Simpson has had better years.

Last January, he got bumped out of the Super Bowl broadcast booth by Joe Theismann.

Later in the year, he got a good going-over in Howard Cosell’s book.

Meanwhile, critics continued to take shots at him for his work on ABC’s “Monday Night Football.�

And in a recent survey in Sport magazine in which readers were asked whom they would like to exile from the NFL booth forever, he got the most votes, 33% of 1,244.

But Simpson is holding up pretty well against the criticism.

“It’s something I have no effect over, so I don’t left it affect me,� he said before last Monday’s Ram-Raider game.

“At first, I regarded most of the criticism as constructive. I criticized myself, too. I was my own worst critic. I tried to improve. And I think I have.

“Now, I think some people are being critical just to be critical.�

Asked if he thought some of the criticism might be racial, Simpson said: “Long ago I decided I would never use that as a crutch, and I won’t now.�

Add Simpson: Will he be back next year? “We haven’t talked about that, but I hope so,� he said.

If anything, Simpson has emerged as the star of the show this season. It’s just that some people don’t think that particular show, meaning what goes on in the booth, is much of a hit.

But, in all fairness, Simpson and rookie Joe Namath, as a tandem, have improved. Namath has been up and down, but he was considerably better in his final game last Monday than he was in his first game.

Simpson and Namath are more pointed in their statements than many of the Sunday afternoon commentators, who often soft-pedal through telecasts.

At one point Monday night, for example, Namath said of quarterback Marc Wilson: “He’s going to his drop-off receivers too soon. I can see it if his deep receivers are covered or he is being pressured. But that is not the case.�

Bob Goodrich, the producer of the Monday night telecasts, said: “We encourage them to be honest in their evaluations, but we never tell them what to say.�

Also, Simpson and Namath are having better exchanges, such as one Monday night in which they playfully argued whether “stronger hands� was really the reason that Marcus Allen was fumbling less than he used to.

“It’s gotten to the point where Joe and I are very comfortable working together,� Simpson said. “We play off each other.

“That wasn’t the case at the start of the season. One of us would make a comment, then the other one would. There wasn’t any byplay.�

Said Goodrich: “I think the criticism, particularly the criticism leveled at Namath, was too harsh at the beginning of the season. Joe was inexperienced and had to get used to having a three-way conversation.�

Goodrich, asked if Simpson and Namath would both be back, said: “That’s not my decision. Roone (Arledge) makes that decision. But I see no reason why they wouldn’t be.�

Oops dept.: Jim McMahon was chided in this column last week for wearing sunglasses while on “NFL Today� the previous weekend. An apology is in order. We didn’t hear McMahon explain that he poked himself in the eye with a fork when he was a child, and because of that, the glare of studio lights bothers him.

We asked a CBS publicist why McMahon wore the sunglasses and were told only that he had said it was because of the glare of the lights. It was a miscommunication, you might say.

San Diego beat: Ed Bieler, former sportscaster for KABC radio who served time for defrauding the government in the 1970s, was working at San Diego radio station KSDO until earlier this month. Known as “Superfan,� Bieler did a sports-talk show until July of 1984, then did a general talk show until leaving the station. Bieler is said to be involved in cable television in the Riverside area.

Bieler’s replacement at KSDO? Roger Hedgecock, the ex-mayor of San Diego who recently was convicted of fraud, among others things. Hedgecock starts at KSDO Jan. 20.

Add San Diego: This item comes from the San Diego Union’s Tom Blair, and it’s about Eddie Alexander, the former Channel 7 sportscaster who had several scrapes with the law before serving time for swindling investors in his restaurant and business ventures out of more than $500,000.

Blair writes that Alexander is not forgotten at Channel 10 in San Diego. He was working there when most of his troubles that led to a one-year prison term occurred. An advertising circular addressed to Alexander recently arrived at Channel 10. It offered him a special deal on a new booklet: “The Complete Seminar on How to Construct a Winning Business.�

Notes

Both NFL wild card games had been scheduled for Sunday. But since the New York Jets and New York Giants are the host teams and both play at Giants Stadium in New Jersey, the AFC game between the Jets and New England Patriots was re-scheduled for Saturday. That caused NBC and CBS to do some schedule shuffling. NBC got the Florida Citrus Bowl people to change the start of their game from 10 a.m. PST to 9:30 to ensure that it will not run over into the start of the Jet-Patriot game. And CBS got the Sun Bowl people to change their game from 11:30 a.m. PST to 9:45. And it got Kentucky to change the time of its basketball game with Louisville from 9:30 a.m. PST to 1 p.m.

The end-of-the-year sports crunch continues. It’s another busy sports weekend, leading up to New Year’s Day and its five bowl games. That’s two too many, since the Cotton and Fiesta and Sugar and Orange are forced to go head-to-head. But the biggest injustice of New Year’s Day is CBS-TV taking Lindsey Nelson off the Cotton Bowl. Nelson had worked the last 25. He’ll be replaced by Brent Musburger, who’ll work with Ara Parseghian. However, Nelson will work the game for CBS Radio. Thank goodness. It just wouldn’t seem like New Year’s without hearing his voice.

Two college football specials: “The Race for No. 1’s Year-End Special� will be on Channel 7 at 3 p.m. Saturday and will feature a preview of bowl games, a profile of Joe Paterno and an interview with Woody Hayes. The Kodak All-American team will be presented during a half-hour show on Channel 2 at 3:30 Saturday. . . . Ratings game: The Rams and Raiders got an impressive L.A. Nielsen rating of 33.0, with a 50% share of the audience. On Sunday, Dallas and San Francisco got a 23.1 L.A. Nielsen rating, Chicago and Detroit a 12.6 and Cleveland and the Jets only a 6.4. . . . Kudos to Fred Roggin and staff for his year-end Hall of Shame last Sunday. It lived up to its billing. But shame on Channel 4 for saying it would begin at 11 p.m. in its promos. It wasn’t shown until 11:30. Could the promos have been designed to keep sports viewers from watching Channel 2’s Jim Hill at 11:10? Nah. . . . ESPN is moving its weekly boxing show to Friday nights, beginning tonight. Included in tonight’s program is Don Dunphy hosting a segment on the history of boxing. . . . For the record: We recently wrote that San Diego cable subscribers can pick up all the L.A. stations. But reader Leo Schario points out that is no longer the case, that neither of the two major cable systems in San Diego carry Channel 2 or 7 and they carry Channel 4 only on a part-time basis.