O.J. Simpson Played a Knife-Wielding Secret Agent in Scrapped NBC Pilot

O.J. Simpson is known for the trial and acquittal of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman in the mid-1990s. But before that, the Pro Football Hall of Fame running back appeared in multiple television shows and movies. Former NBC executive Warren Littlefield recently appeared on The Town podcast and was asked about a pilot Simpson was on for the network. Littlefield said that Simpson played a black ops agent who wielded a knife and "dressed in black." 

"Had it ever been used if it was admitted as evidence, and they couldn't because of the way it was illegally seized, it would have been unbelievably damning for jurors to see that," Littlefield said who also noted that Simpson had a copy of the pilot. Littlefield added that the pilot is not available anywhere as it never aired on NBC. 

Waiting for an announcement about the OJ Simpson episode of FROGMEN. pic.twitter.com/qM8KKAthjD

— John Cribbs (@TheLastMachine) March 8, 2019

"I don't think you'll find it," Littleton told host Matthew Belloni. "However, when we were in scheduling wars, when someone would make a move, maybe against our fall premiere, and we thought it was a really inappropriate move, once or twice Preston Beckman, our head of scheduling and strategic planning may have said to another network, 'If you stay with this move, we will take the O.J. pilot and we will play it against you.' And at this point, it was the trial of the century. It was this massive threat where we had no rights to it."

Simpson appeared in television shows and movies from 1968 to 1994. He is known for appearing in the Naked Gun films with Leslie Neilsen and Pricilla Presley. Simpson also appeared in five episodes of the HBO series 1st & Ten, which also starred Delta Burke and Shannon Tweed. 

According to Variety, the name of the unseen TV pilot was Frogmen. Simpson played the leader of a crash team of ex-Navy SEALs, and the group worked out of a surf shop in Malibu. Simpson's name in the pilot was John "Bullfrog" Burke, and all that exists of the pilot is a 25-minute presentation video, which is locked away in a vault by Warner Bros., according to Uproxx. Brian Lowry, who worked for the Los Angeles Times around that time, viewed the video with the help of a source close to the project.