Evans Says O.J. Case Is Now Behind Him : Raiders: Reserve quarterback, 39, took to airwaves to urge Simpson to surrender during freeway chase.

Reserve quarterback Vince Evans took the snap from center, backpedaled, the bounce still evident in his 39-year-old legs, and looked for an open target.

Spotting one, he threw a tight spiral through the blue sky above Raider training camp. Satisfaction expressed itself through Evans’ body language as the pass was caught.

He has been throwing footballs professionally for 18 years, but Evans’ enthusiasm seems unaffected by the passage of time.

He loves being here in the sunny days of summer, this year more than ever.

That’s because it’s such a contrast to the dark days he went through a few weeks ago.

Evans was shocked by the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman and stunned by the news that former football star O.J. Simpson was going to be tried for the crimes.

But unlike most, Evans had a personal connection. He has been friends with Simpson, a fellow member of the USC football program, for nearly two decades.

“We had the SC bond that we kid about all the time,” Evans said.

And unlike all but a very few, Evans was able to express his feelings on national TV when he went on the air to appeal to Simpson to surrender to police rather than take his own life.

It was Friday, June 17. Simpson had been expected to turn himself in to police. Instead, he and his best friend, Al Cowlings, disappeared.

When they were spotted on the freeway in Simpson’s utility vehicle, Cowlings, at the wheel, told police, and a listening world, to keep their distance because Simpson had a gun to his own head.

Evans, sitting at home with his mother, Riva, was watching, finding it all unbelievable.

When he heard Cowlings mention the gun, Evans said he feared Simpson “was going to take himself out. I was just scared for the guy.”

After Evans heard TV sportscaster Jim Hill broadcast an appeal to Simpson and Cowlings to pull over, Evans called the station to give Hill a message to pass on to Simpson.

When he got through, Evans was crying so hard that he had to pause to make himself understood. He was told that Hill was on the air but that he would be put through.

“The next thing I knew, I was on the air,” Evans said.

Evans did not realize his words were going out across the nation until he heard his voice on his own television.

What the country heard Evans say was, “Guys, just give yourself up, man, just stop. Please stop in Jesus’ name. Just stop, man, ‘cause we love you.”

At that point, Evans was overcome with emotion.

The KCBS audio feed had been picked up by KNX radio, so there was a chance Simpson and Cowlings were listening in their car.

“If he could hear me, I would have felt so bad if I couldn’t have done something to try and stop it,” Evans said. “I couldn’t physically run down the freeway and jump in the car, but I could get on the phone. . . .

“When it was over, I felt like I did what I was supposed to do. Hopefully, I did what millions of other people who had a friend in a dilemma would have done, had they had the opportunity.”

It was Hill, a former NFL player himself, who first tried to talk to Simpson.

“Face the situation.” he advised. “It’s happened. You have to deal with it. No way in the world is it going to get any better if you continue to run.”

Hill knew his audience might consist of much of the nation, but said he put that out of his mind.

“I didn’t think about how many millions were listening,” he said. “I was talking to O.J. and A.C. . . . Maybe I helped in some small way to calm down what could have been an incident with a horrible ending.”

Instead, Simpson surrendered at his home in Brentwood.

“I was relieved and thankful that he did not kill himself,” Evans said. “I felt like my prayers had been answered.”

Evans said he later talked to Simpson, who told him he had not heard the broadcast, but thanked him anyway.

And Evans is ready to move on. “That’s it. It’s over,” he said. “I appreciate it if I had a chance to do some good, but that’s behind me now.”

He simply wants to be back in his world, throwing footballs into opposing defenses, living a life he appreciates more than ever.