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Though Simpson, by all accounts, is eager to have his say in public--every reporter is advised to stay close to the phone--associates say he will probably lie low for the near future. "He'll wait for this to all die down and for the civil lawsuits to get concluded," says his business attorney Leroy ("Skip") Taft. "In terms of public appearances, he's probably going to be pretty quiet for the next six months." The mood around Simpson has darkened since the euphoria following his acquittal. "You could make the case that his civil rights are being violated," says a friend. "People are calling businesses he has worked with and urging them to boycott him. He feels he is the most misunderstood man on earth." Though Taft claims "a lot of business deals" have been offered to Simpson, ranging from trading cards to 900 phone lines, nearly all the career avenues once open to him seem to be closing. "All the times I visited him in jail and during the criminal trial," says Taft, "he knew that the 'Juice' of the past 25 years isn't going to be started up again. He knows that." And if he didn't, he does now.
--Reported by Jeffrey Ressner and James Willwerth/Los Angeles and David E. Thigpen/New York