Cowlings’s life has been intertwined with Simpson’s since they grew up in a tough section called The Projects in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill. In a classic scenario, sports was their ticket out. Both were stars at Galileo High, where Cowlings was the biggest guy on the football team. ““Al followed O.J. like his shadow, both in their youth and afterward. They were joined at the hip, you might say,’’ Joe Bell, another high-school friend, told the Los Angeles Times. Their closeness was not without its complications. According to Bell, Cowlings, who stuttered in high school, had been dating Marguerite Whitley, and asked Simpson to ““help him out and tell her things.’’ Simpson did so well that he wound up with Whitley (who eventually became his first wife). The friendship tottered; the gentle giant even tried to turn over a car with Simpson and Whitley inside.

But the bond was too strong to break. Pushing Cowlings to keep his grades up, Simpson cleared the way for his friend to follow him to San Francisco City College and then to the University of Southern California. There, the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Cowlings (who, ironically, majored in criminology) became part of a fearsome defensive line called the Wild Bunch. In 1970, a year after Simpson was drafted by the Buffalo Bills, he saw to it that Cowlings was their first draft choice. Although he was no superstar, Cowlings found himself with Simpson again as both closed out their careers in 1979 with the San Francisco 49ers. Since then Cowlings has had a checkered career, with stints as a bartender and some minor roles in TV shows featuring Simpson, for whom he’s been sometimes a bodyguard and always a confidant.

So what was their relationship? Soul friends like Damon and Pythias? Alter egos like Muhammad Ali and Bundini Brown? Or were they, in that last bizarre ride, a kind of male Thelma and Louise, outlaws dumbfounded by explosive tragedy? What did Cowlings say to Simpson inside that white Bronco? Was he helping a fugitive to – impossibly – escape? Was he a psychotherapist on wheels? Last week L.A. District Attorney Gil Garcetti said his office wanted ““to investigate [Cowlings] thoroughly. It’s always possible we would decline to prosecute.’’ Maybe friendship isn’t a felony.