Bronco

Make
Ford
Segment
SUV

After weeks of waiting, Ford finally announced that the reborn Bronco SUV will have its official online reveal on July 9. That's the good news. The not so good news is that July 9 happens to be the birthday of former football star O.J. Simpson.

In case you're not making the connection here (or you're just too young to know), the former football star was infamously charged with the murders of his ex-wife and her friend but was later found innocent after what many dubbed "the trial of the century." Simpson's white Ford Bronco is known the world over after 95 million people watched live footage of the SUV, driven by his longtime friend Al Cowlings, being slowly chased by over a dozen police cars with lights flashing on a Los Angeles highway. Simpson was later found not guilty after an 11-month trial.

So how did Ford let this happen and what to do next?

The Detroit Free Press reached out to a few industry analysts for their opinions and all were equally shocked.

"I gotta believe this is a mistake. Didn't anybody look at the calendar?" said John McElroy, host of Autoline.TV. "Ford Motor Co. does not want to correlate the launch of such an iconic and important vehicle with a police chase with a notorious person. Everybody in the world knew that O.J. was fleeing in a white Ford Bronco." Another industry analyst, Michelle Krebs, was equally surprised by the date. "I'm not quite sure what to say."

Even when this 60 mph chase happened, Ford was not at all happy that, of all vehicles on the market, it had to be a Bronco.

In all likelihood, Ford simply didn't even bother to check what date Simpson's birthday fell on because, you know, why would you? It boils down to being an unfortunate coincidence. So, what's Ford going to do next? Will it change the 2021 Bronco's reveal date? Nope.

"We're going to reveal Bronco just like we said we would on July 9," said Mike Levine, Ford's product communications manager. Simpson's birthday is "purely coincidental," he added.

For the record, O.J. Simpson will be turning 73.