O.J. Can't Catch A Break (Except For Maybe That One Time)
By Sam Bakken in News on Aug 1, 2005 10:21AM
On Saturday officials at this year's National Sports Collector Convention kicked O.J. Simpson out of the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemount for signing autographs. An exhibitor invited him to sign sports memorabilia without the convention officials' permission. Evidently organizers have suggested inviting Simpson to their show in the past, but the convention's board has always rejected the idea. Because they violated the lease for their booth, the exhibitor was also ejected.
The Sun-Times reports that some Simpson-autographed items were going for about $100. While we wouldn't ever pay that much for any autograph, it seems kind of cheap for autographed sports memorabilia. And we know O.J. is hurtin' for cash to pay a $25,000 cable bill and $33.5 million civil judgement against him. We think he may want to think about getting into the murder memorabilia circuit. Surely he could fetch at least $500 for a pair of autographed Bruno Magli shoes.
Officials claim their order to remove Simpson was not because they discriminate against men acquitted of murder. They also asked the "Human Highlight Film" Dominique Wilkins to leave the convention because he didn't have their prior approval to sign autographs, and 'Nique never even allegedly killed anybody.