Former Palm Beach Post sports writer recalls a different O.J. Simpson from time in Buffalo

So O.J. Simpson is gone. A lot of people would say "Good riddance," but the O.J. I knew is very different from the one who became better known for an infamous double-murder trial than anything he did on the football field.

I met O.J. when I was covering the Buffalo Bills from 1974-76 for the Niagara (Falls) Gazette. I was 24 when I was assigned the beat and he was 27, while the two main beat writers, Larry Feller of the Buffalo News and Jim Baker of the now-defunct Courier-Express, were much older.

That gave me an edge in a locker room where I was a contemporary of most of the players. Two guys even offered to get me a playbook so I could understand the offensive and defensive philosophies before the coaches found out and nixed the idea.

I was on the beat for three years (1974-76) before moving to Fort Myers in 1977 to cover the Dolphins. I told people for years afterward that O.J. was my favorite player to cover in any sport because he was so media-friendly and down-to-earth.

Here are a few of my recollections:

O.J. stiffed CBS' Phyllis George

Sports Illustrated's Peter King reprinted this story in his weekly recap and it says a lot about the O.J. I knew.

One Sunday after a home game, I went to him and asked if I could get a sit-down the following Wednesday. He said sure. That day came and I quickly learned Phyllis George was up in the office of PR man Budd Thalman to interview O.J. for that week's CBS pregame show.

Recognizing my interview was now on the back burner, I trudged back to the locker room after practice only to see O.J. the minute I opened the door asking "You ready?" We spent the next 30 minutes in the best interview I had with him while the PR guy stomped back and forth outside the room. I later realized O.J. hadn't been informed George was coming and stalled her as long as he could to prove a point.

Bills players had a lot of respect for O.J.

After a Monday night game in Cincinnati that the Bills lost, the players in the locker room were irate over the fact that one of the Bengals had spit in the face of one of the Bills at the end of the game. And irate is putting it mildly; they were enraged.

O.J.'s leadership was on display that night. He took charge, calmed everybody down and assured his teammates it would be handled the correct way. The respect his teammates had for him was on full display.

O.J. remembered the beat writer from Buffalo

I was writing a radio/TV column for The Palm Beach Post when O.J. came to town as a broadcast analyst to do a Monday night game involving the Dolphins.

I set up an interview with him through ABC and drove down to the Sonesta Beach Hotel on Key Biscayne, sitting down to wait outside the room for the production meeting to end. When it did the door flew open, O.J. did a double take and approached me with a big smile and a "Hey Brian!" We had a great interview and that's the last time I saw him and the last story I did on him.

The best I ever saw O.J. was a game against Pittsburgh at Three Rivers Stadium early in the 1975 season. Coming off one Super Bowl and on their way to another, the Steelers had held him to 49 yards in what would be the only playoff game he would play for Buffalo at the end of 1974.

This one was different: He ripped through the Steel Curtain for 227 yards, an 8.1 average, including an 80-yard TD. Many consider that year, when he led the league with 1,817 yards and 23 touchdowns, to be even better than 1973, when he became the first player to amass 2,000 yards on the ground.

I came away from the O.J. trial with the same verdict as most everyone I knew: He did it.

The O.J. I remember is not that guy.

Brian Biggane worked for The Palm Beach Post for 35 years, covering the Florida Panthers and professional golf, among other sports, before retiring in 2015.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: O.J. Simpson remembered from playing days with Buffalo Bills, not murder trial