Jedd Fisch explains his fascination with O.J. Simpson trial

Even in his wildest imagination, Jedd Fisch probably didn’t think he’d be riding an elevator in a Los Angeles courthouse with the likes of Robert Shapiro, F. Lee Bailey, Johnnie Cochrane and Barry Scheck one morning during the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

But that is exactly where the now-Washington head coach found himself as a college freshman trying to find his way into the gallery for a trial and case that had captivated him for months. Fisch recalled his efforts to make his way into that courtroom in 1995 on a recent episode of ESPN’s “College GameDay” podcast.

The interest in the whole case started when Fisch was a high school senior in New Jersey, when he watched the infamous police chase involving the white Ford Bronco. Planning to attend the University of Florida in the fall, where he pursued a degree in criminology, Fisch was still deciding what he wanted to do professionally: Coach football or go into law, like his dad and brother.

“I just said to my dad in the summer time, like, ‘Dad, I gotta get out to the this trial. I’m watching it every day, I can’t get enough of this thing,'” Fisch said now.

He made his way to Los Angeles later that summer, staying with the sister of a friend out west. Fisch recalled going to the courthouse, suit and tie donned, and failing to get in to the court room multiple times, even after showing up at 4 a.m.

Nearing the end of his trip, Fisch was getting desperate when he saw his chance one morning.

“Tried to sneak my way in, met a bunch of family members, nothing happened,” Fisch said, recalling his endeavors. “Next day, tried it again, nothing. And then I finally, that next Monday morning, I had a suit and tie on, and I see a car pull up and it’s like a Lexus and a Rolls Royce and another fancy car and it was like Shapiro and Johnnie Cochrane and F. Lee Bailey and I’m in a suit and tie and they’re in a suit and tie, and I’m like, ‘Ah, screw it.’ So, they walk in and I just kind of joined, I joined the walk. And the elevator door closed and it was like Kardashian, Cochrane, Shapiro, Fisch, Barry Scheck and they turned and they said, ‘Who are you?’ And I’m like, ‘Jedd Fisch, criminology major at the University of Florida.’ And they said, ‘Just come on in with us.'”

And the court proceedings that Fisch got to witness at one of the most-covered criminal trials in American history didn’t involve any of the famed moments that most remember now, such as Simpson showing the jury the gloves that were supposedly worn by him during the murder apparently didn’t fit.

“So I wound up sitting in the the front row of some sock evidence deal, it was crazy,” Fisch said.

Fisch, who ended up going into coaching and following in the footsteps of Steve Spurrier — then Florida’s coach who Fisch harangued into giving him a role — did recall another encounter with one of the attorneys defending Simpson years later.

“I said this to Robert Shapiro a couple years ago,” Fisch said, “he and I went out for lunch and I said, ‘I was either going to be you or Steve Spurrier. I did choose Steve Spurrier, but if you want to chose to pick up the bill for lunch today, that would be perfect.'”