Posted on Mon, May. 12, 2008

MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK

Two exes make Southern Cal feel kind of bitter

A lot of people like to begin their day with some O.J. but maybe not the way the sports world did on Mother's Day.

If you were busy taking mom to brunch, or simply were avoiding the unsavory side of sports, you might have missed two so-called "breaking" stories involving a legend and a wannabe legend, both of whom attended Southern Cal and go by the initials O.J.

In an interview on the ESPN TV show Outside the Lines, Louis Johnson, now presumably a former friend of O.J. Mayo - the one-and-done guard on USC's basketball team and a projected lottery pick in the NBA Draft - claims that Mayo received more than $30,000 in gifts and cash dating to his high school days.

The generosity was allegedly bestowed on Mayo by Rodney Guillory, described as an event promoter in Los Angeles. And his deep pockets were supposedly lined by Bill Duffy Associates, a sports agency that was playing Santa Claus so that it would ultimately get Mayo as a client when he turned pro.

May we have a scorecard please to keep track of all the players in this web of intrigue?

If this storyline sounds familiar, it's not surprising given that it is pretty much the same one that the NCAA is pursuing regarding Reggie Bush, the Southern Cal Heisman Trophy winner who reportedly received cash and gifts during his undergraduate days. We should be hearing the result of that investigation by the time Bush retires from the New Orleans Saints.

Meanwhile, Sunday also brought another revelation that perhaps only 12 people in the country might find shocking: Mike Gilbert, a friend and confidant of O.J. Simpson, is publishing a book titled How I Helped O.J. Get Away With Murder.

In excerpts released to the Associated Press, Gilbert says that Simpson "had smoked pot, took a sleeping pill and was drinking beer when he confided at his Brentwood home weeks after his trial what happened the night of June 12, 1994," when Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were stabbed to death at the front door of her condo.

According to Gilbert, Simpson later told him in subdued tones, "If she hadn't opened that door with a knife in her hand ... she'd still be alive."

Gilbert considered that a confession. A jury acquitted Simpson during his sensational murder trial that polarized opinion across racial lines around the country. The irony is that Simpson's popularity crossed any racial divide as he parlayed his college and pro football career into success in Hollywood. Oh, and did we mention that Simpson went to Southern Cal?

One thought immediately crossed our mind after reading these accounts on Sunday; with "friends" such as Louis Johnson and Mike Gilbert, O.J. and O.J. really don't need any enemies.

Simpson, of course, can't be tried for the same crime twice, although Gilbert's book isn't going to help him land any gigs real soon.

Not that murder should be cavalierly dismissed, but more interesting to the sports world, is what the NCAA will do to Southern Cal if the Mayo and Bush allegations are substantiated. Although there are two sports involved, it may indicate a pattern of behavior in the university's athletic program that will be difficult for the NCAA to ignore, no matter how influential the school is to college athletics.

Southern Methodist received the "death penalty," shutting down the football program in 1987 for violations while it was already on probation. Adding all the scholarships and revenue lost, the once-glamorous program has never recovered, and it has been suggested that the NCAA would never go that far again in punishing any university.

But if the Bush and Mayo allegations are true, it may put that theory to test.