Let Me Show You My Pogs: O.J. Simpson

When I was in second or third grade, my teacher made our class write a “research paper,” essentially a long book report. I was a big dork and big into football history—at one point I was going to try to focus on the 1948 Philadelphia Eagles—and eventually did my report on O.J. Simpson.

This would’ve been 1990 or so. I was a big O.J. fan. I loved him in the Naked Gun series. I liked him as an analyst on TV. And my parents told me he was a great running back. (I didn’t know about his history of spousal abuse. I was, like, seven.) Plus, and this is important: O.J. famously had a big head. I have a big head. It was like we were friends!

My O.J. appreciation continued until Simpson killed his ex-wife and another man. Then it waned a bit. But I was still interested: I followed the trial pretty obsessively. It was televised for all 11 months, which meant I was able to watch for three months of summer vacation.

Obviously, I also had O.J. Simpson pogs.

Somehow I still have some of these pogs. Here is a video in which I explore the different kinds of O.J. pogs that were on the market in the mid-1990s.