O.J. Simpson Update

The restaurant owner making national headlines for not serving O.J. Simpson is a racist, or so claims an attorney for the former football star.

Jeff Ruby has upscale restaurants in the Cincinnati area, as well as Belterra, Ind., and for about a year now in Louisville. I used to work at his flagship Cincinnati joint from 1994-2000.

One night in the late 1990s, after a book signing, Johnny Cochran or Robert Shapiro -- I can't remember whom -- called the restaurant and said he and his entourage were on the way for a late dinner. Word quickly got to Ruby, who then hustled to the restaurant, waited in front of the building and didn't allow the group to eat there.

And Friday night in Louisville, on the eve of the Kentucky Derby, Ruby came in shortly after Simpson and his party were seated. Ruby told them he wouldn't allow them to be served.

Seeing Simpson still get as much attention as he does "makes me sick to my stomach," Ruby told an Associated Press writer. I agree.

When I caught up with some friends in Louisville on Friday, they actually told me they'd seen O.J. out the night before. My two male friends, along with one of their girlfriends, were crossing the street when they noticed Simpson in an SUV -- a white one, they assured me -- with two other women. My friends called out to O.J., who rolled down a window, fixed his gaze on the girl and said, "Oh yeah, I like that."

It's no secret that many pro athletes are wired differently. Their lives are largely about money and sex and money and sex and more money and more sex. And after their glory days end, they know no other way than to continue to behave like selfish children, spending their days playing golf and objectifying women. Some even slice the heads off their estranged wives.

And our culture is so dumb that we let him get away with it, laugh at him when he considers writing a book called "If I Did It," then herd our women into SUVs and watch them giggle when he leers at others crossing the street.

But that restaurant owner sure is a racist.