"You hear echoes of his story in the stories of O.J. Simpson,"
I know he did not just put OJ in the same story as Jack Johnson. What a fool.
There's no way they're the same. You're right. What an idiot! LOL
In his defense, I don't believe that he intentionally meant to draw the comparison between Jack Johnson, the human being, and O.J. Simpson.
Rather, I believe that he was reaching for an example of a similar case, i.e. a prominent black professional athlete who was married to a beautiful white woman.
However, the way the statement was phrased made it appear as if the author was placing Jack Johnson and O.J. Simpson on the same moral plain, which-had that been his intention-would have been a simply ludricous comparison.