Allen’s Book Falls Short When It Comes To Dirt Simpson, Davis Topics Not All That Revealing

There are Trappist monks, who take vows of silence, who have probably said more in recent years than Marcus Allen.

He spoke once during a “Monday Night Football” telecast in 1992 about his acrimonious dealings with his former Raider boss, Al Davis, then clammed up.

Two years ago, after all legal maneuvers to escape had failed, he honored a subpoena and answered questions about his relationship with Nicole Brown Simpson. And then those answers were never used.

Pinning down Marcus Allen has been as difficult as trying to tackle him, but standing now on a faraway practice field, he is a backup running back for the Kansas City Chiefs, beginning his 16th season in the NFL, and now there might be no shutting him up.

He has a message to deliver, he insists, and beginning Sept. 8, a $24.95 book to sell.

“Here’s what I’m trying to do,” says Allen, who holds the NFL record for rushing touchdowns with 112. “I’m trying to go from success to significance.”

That’s great, and there’s probably a humanitarian award to be won at some point, but what about the dirt?

Skip the initial “when I was growing up as a kid” 131 pages of “Marcus,” to find out what he really thinks about Al Davis, and then jump to page 277 for the 1995 question that seemingly has never gone away.

“Did you have an affair with Nicole?” Los Angeles prosecutor Chris Darden asked Allen during a deposition in a Kansas City hotel room.

There will be no reason to yell, “Stop the presses!”

In Allen’s written words, “Stunned by the question, I said, ‘No, I didn’t.”’ It’s what he’s also saying now, backed against a wall outside the Kansas City Chiefs’ training camp locker room at the University of Wisconsin in River Falls. “I deny there was ever a relationship,” he says. “There was just nothing there.”

Allen, although talking and writing now, remains just as elusive. Although he discusses his relationship with O.J. Simpson and his reaction to hearing of Nicole Brown Simpson’s murder, he provides no opinion of guilt or innocence. The good soldier to the very end.

“And what did I think?” he writes. “I’d long since made up my mind that I would refuse to judge. And to this day there is but one certainty I can share: I am and forever will be tortured by the loss of two people who were my friends; one murdered, one now faced to live a lifetime being blamed for the tragedy.”

He says he learned of Nicole’s murder while playing golf on vacation in the Cayman Islands, and heeded the advice of friends to remain there and avoid the media crush surrounding Simpson, his good friend.

“When I finally reached O.J. at his home,” writes Allen, “the anguish in his voice was like nothing I’d ever heard. ‘Oh, my God,’ he kept saying over and over. ‘Oh, my God… . Oh, my God.”’

Allen, who had been inspired by Simpson to attend USC and who since had spent many a social hour with him, visited Simpson once in jail early on. But he says that was the last time he saw Simpson in person, and while offering no further clue to his present-day relationship with Simpson, he says he no longer remains friendly with Simpson friend Al Cowlings because of the strain brought on by the situation.

For those who feel cheated and want to know more about Allen, there is this promise Davis made a few months ago: “I will tell you some time the real story about Marcus Allen and Nicole and O.J.”

But apparently not today.

Davis did not respond to an invitation to reflect on his relationship with Allen and the predictable viewpoint in Allen’s book of their disagreements. The man who has not spoken at length in years has apparently remained quiet because there has been nothing new to offer.

“There is not as much venom as I think people would anticipate,” Allen says, in stopping a rush to the bookstores. But it will, he says, “certainly have Davis overreacting, but then that’s typical.”

Davis to this very day spits out Allen’s name when the occasion arises to use it, but like Allen in his book, neither have ever pinpointed the specific reason for their mutual contempt.

“Despite all the theories and second-hand rumors that I heard, I could neither understand nor determine for certain why Al Davis had declared war against me,” says Allen. “It made no sense.”

Like a martyr’s, Allen’s reputation appeared to take on holy proportions around the NFL with players. He came off as the sympathetic figure to Davis’ devil.

After filing suit against the Raiders and the NFL to win his release, Allen signed with Kansas City and added 3,193 yards to his resume.