No One Could Have Seen This Coming — Vintage Magazine Cover About Magic Johnson & O.J. Simpson Goes Viral [PHOTO]
No way they printed that.
A nearly 40-year-old Rolling Stone magazine cover has resurfaced online, and people are looking at it through very different lenses today.
The magazine’s October 28, 1985, cover, featuring Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson alongside four women in yellow swimsuits, is back. And it’s clear that the cover lines haven’t aged well.
One headline reads, “How Magic Stays Positive.”
Another promotes a feature on O.J. Simpson with the words, “OJ Takes a Stab at Family Life.”
Back in 1985, both headlines would have read as regular stories. However, they took on entirely different meanings by the ‘90s.
Magic Johnson & O.J. Simpson Controversies Remain Two Of The Biggest In Sports History
Magic Johnson (Image Credits: Imagn)
When the issue launched, Magic Johnson was at the height of his NBA career. The cover story focused on his upbeat personality and life as one of basketball’s brightest stars.
Six years later, Johnson stunned the sports world by announcing he had tested positive for HIV. His public announcement in 1991 transformed public understanding of the virus and made him one of its most recognizable advocates. Thanks to advances in treatment, Johnson has continued to lead an active life while promoting HIV awareness.
The O.J. Simpson headline has also taken on a dramatically different meaning.
The phrase “takes a stab at family life” originally served as a playful reference to Simpson discussing his home life. However, the wording became unsettling after the 1994 killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Simpson was acquitted of murder in his criminal trial but was later found liable for the wrongful deaths in a 1997 civil lawsuit. He died in 2024.
Nothing on the 1985 cover intended to foreshadow either event. The issue simply reflected two major sports figures at very different points in their lives.
As to whether the cover is real, it’s probably not. But, if it was, Rolling Stone really had no way of knowing how wildly things would change just years later.
