O. J. Simpson
Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024) was an American football player and actor who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. Regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time, his professional success was overshadowed by his trial and controversial acquittal for the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.
"The Juice" redirects here. For other uses, see Juice (disambiguation).
O. J. Simpson
July 9, 1947
April 10, 2024 (aged 76)
The Juice
- Professional football player
- actor
- sports broadcaster
- spokesman
- Professional career
- murder trial
- robbery case
- Armed robbery
- kidnapping
- 33 years' imprisonment
- 9 years without parole
- Paroled, released in 2017
- released from parole in 2021
5
6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
212 lb (96 kg)
Galileo (San Francisco, California)
11,236
11,236
4.7
61
203
2,142
14
Simpson played college football for the USC Trojans, where he won the Heisman Trophy as a senior, and was selected first overall by the Bills in the 1969 NFL/AFL draft. During his nine seasons with the Bills, he received five consecutive Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro selections from 1972 to 1976. He also led the league in rushing yards four times, in rushing touchdowns twice, and in points scored in 1975. He became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, earning him NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP), and is the only NFL player to do so in a 14-game regular season. He holds the record for the single-season yards-per-game average at 143.1.
After retiring with the San Francisco 49ers in 1979, he acted in film and television, became a sports broadcaster, and was a spokesman for a wide variety of products and companies, notably Hertz. He was later inducted into multiple football halls of fame.
Brown and Goldman were murdered in Los Angeles on the night of June 12, 1994. Simpson was charged with the murders, and arrested after a widely televised incident in which he tried to flee the police in his friend's car. The internationally publicized murder trial lasted from January to October 1995, and created racial divisions in the U.S. He was acquitted on October 3. Three years later, he was found liable for the murders in a civil suit from the victims' families, but paid little of the $33.5 million judgment.
In 2007, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, and charged with armed robbery and kidnapping. In 2008, he was convicted, and sentenced to 33 years' imprisonment with a minimum of nine years without parole. He served his sentence at the Lovelock Correctional Center in rural Nevada, until being paroled and released in 2017. He was released from parole in 2021 and lived in freedom until his death at age 76 from cancer in 2024.
Football career
Buffalo Bills
The first selection in the 1969 NFL/AFL draft was held by the AFL's Buffalo Bills, after finishing 1–12–1 in 1968. They took Simpson, but he demanded the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years (equivalent to $4.1 million in 2023). This led to a standoff with Bills' owner, Ralph Wilson, as Simpson threatened to become an actor and skip professional football. Eventually, Wilson agreed to pay Simpson.[31][32]
Simpson entered professional football with high expectations,[31][32] but struggled in his first three years, averaging only 622 yards per season.[33] Bills coach John Rauch, not wanting to build an offense around one running back, assigned Simpson to do blocking and receiving duties at the expense of running the ball. In 1971, Rauch resigned as head coach, and the Bills brought in Harvey Johnson.[31][34][35] Despite Johnson devising a new offense for Simpson, Simpson was still ineffective that year. After the 1971 season, the Bills fired Johnson and brought in Lou Saban as head coach.[31] Unlike Rauch, Saban made Simpson the centerpiece of the Bills offense.[36]
Broadcasting career
Simpson worked as an NFL analyst on NBC from 1978 to 1982.[69] He joined ABC's Monday Night Football crew in 1983,[70] becoming the first black announcer on the network's No. 1 NFL broadcast team.[71] For Super Bowl XIX during the 1984 season, ABC moved Simpson to its pregame show, replacing him in the broadcast booth with active player Joe Theismann, who had played in the previous two Super Bowls.[72] Simpson continued his Monday Night Football announcing duties in 1985 before being dropped after the season.[69][72] In 1989, he rejoined NBC to replace Ahmad Rashad as an analyst on their NFL Live! pregame show.[69][73] After he was accused of his wife's murder, Simpson was replaced by Rashad in 1994.[74][75]
Endorsements
Chuck Barnes helped Simpson form business relationships with Chevrolet and ABC early in his football career. By 1971, the magazine New York wrote that Simpson was already wealthy enough to "retire this week if [he] wanted to".[76]
Beginning in 1975, he appeared in advertisements with the Hertz rental car company. Commercials depicted Simpson running through airports (embodying speed), as others shouted to him the Hertz slogan "Go, O.J., Go!".[77] He was the first Black man to be hired for a major corporate national advertising campaign,[2] a unique decision for a conservative, dominant corporation to fend off its rival, No. 2 Avis.[78] Besides helping his acting career, Simpson estimated that the very successful "superstar in rent-a-car" campaign raised the recognition rate among people he met from 30% to 90%.[11] Hertz's annual profit increased by 50% to $42.2 million within the first year, brand awareness increased by more than 40%,[59] and 97% of viewers understood that the commercials advertised Hertz, avoiding the common "vampire video" problem[11] of viewers remembering an ad, but not which brand it promotes. Simpson was so important to the company that CEO Frank Olson personally negotiated his contract, and Hertz used him for an unusually long time for a celebrity endorser. Although Simpson appeared less often in Hertz commercials by the late 1980s, his relationship with the company continued; Simpson was to travel to Chicago to meet with Hertz executives and clients on the night of the Brown-Goldman murder.[77]
Simpson used his amiable persona,[79] good looks, and charisma in many endorsement deals.[77] Advertising Age in 1977 named Simpson the magazine's Star Presenter of the Year;[59] by 1984, consumer research found that he was the most popular athlete endorser. A 1990s MCI Communications commercial starring Eunice Simpson satirized her son's work.[77] Other products Simpson endorsed included Pioneer Chicken, Honey Baked Ham, TreeSweet orange juice, Calistoga Water Company's line of Napa Naturals soft drinks, and Dingo cowboy boots. As president and CEO of O. J. Simpson Enterprises, he owned hotels and restaurants. When Simpson and Brown divorced in 1992, he had $10 million in assets and more than $1 million in annual income, including $550,000 from Hertz.[77]
Illness and death
In May 2023, Simpson reported that he had been diagnosed with cancer and expressed confidence that he would beat it.[188] He also said he started chemotherapy.[2] In February 2024, it was reported that Simpson was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.[189] A week and a half before his death, Simpson cancelled a scheduled memorabilia signing because he was not feeling well.[190] In the final days before his death, all of Simpson's children visited him.[191] He died of the disease on April 10, 2024, at the age of 76.[192][16] At the time, Simpson had been living in Las Vegas, right next to the Rhodes Ranch Golf Club.[16]
Simpson's death was met with mixed reactions, with his legal history overshadowing his sporting achievements.[193] The NFL originally reported Simpson's death with an Associated Press copy,[194] and neither the Bills, 49ers, nor USC published any condolences or tributes following his death.[195] The Goldman family issued a statement that read, "The hope for true accountability has ended... Thank you for keeping our family, and most importantly Ron, in your hearts".[196][197] White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a short statement, "Our thoughts are with his families during this difficult time... I know that they have asked for some privacy and so we're going to respect that."[198] Sports analyst Stephen A. Smith mentioned, "One of the greatest athletes we have ever seen... But it all pales in comparison to him being perceived as a double murderer."[199][200] David Zucker, director of The Naked Gun movies, posted a picture of Simpson on his Instagram, with the caption, "His acting was a lot like his murdering: He got away with it, but no one believed him."[201]
Simpson was cremated at the Palm Mortuary in Downtown Las Vegas on April 17, 2024.[202][203] Scientists had requested for Simpson's brain to be studied for signs of CTE, but the Simpson estate refused.[204][205] The executor of Simpson's estate announced plans to fight the estate's money going to the Brown and Goldman families,[206] but reversed course soon after.[207] No plans were made for a public memorial.[202] Malcolm LeVergne, the attorney handling Simpson's estate, stated that his cremains will be given to his children.[202]
In popular culture
Overview
The New York Times wrote that Simpson "generated a tide of tell-all books, movies, studies and debate over questions of justice, race relations and celebrity in a nation that adores its heroes". More than 30 books were written on Simpson by the time of his death.[16]
Film and television
During and after the murder trial, Simpson was the frequent subject of mocking jokes by Norm Macdonald on Saturday Night Live. These jokes, which became famous, are widely believed to have caused Macdonald to be fired by NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer, who was friends with Simpson.[208][209] Television host Conan O'Brien remembered Macdonald's comedy about the murders and trial as the most notable commentary about Simpson's legal troubles.[210] In the wake of Simpson's death, Macdonald's old jokes about him went viral.[211] Prior to his death, Macdonald jokingly claimed to have changed his mind about Simpson's guilt. According to Macdonald's friend Lori Jo Hoekstra, however, that new commentary was enough for Simpson to reach out to Macdonald and offer to play a round of golf with him.[212]
In Fox Network's TV movie, The O. J. Simpson Story (1995), Simpson is portrayed as a youth by Bumper Robinson and as an adult by Bobby Hosea; his close friend Al Cowlings is portrayed as a youth by Terrence Howard and as an adult by David Roberson.[213][214][215] In CBS's TV movie American Tragedy (2000), Simpson is played by Raymond Forchion.[216]
BBC TV's documentary, O.J. Simpson: The Untold Story (2000), produced by Malcolm Brinkworth, "reveals that clues that some believe pointed away from Simpson as the killer were dismissed or ignored and highlights two other leads which could shed new light on the case."[217] The Investigation Discovery TV movie documentary, OJ: Trial of the Century (2014), begins on the day of the murders, ends on the reading of the verdict, and comprises actual media footage of events and reactions, as they unfolded.[218] Also an Investigation Discovery TV documentary is O.J. Simpson Trial: The Real Story (2016), which entirely comprises archival news footage of the murder case, the Bronco chase, the trial, the verdict, and reactions.[219]
The documentary miniseries, O.J.: Made in America (2016), directed by Ezra Edelman and produced by Laylow Films, is an American five-part, 7+1⁄2-hour film that previewed at the Tribeca and Sundance Film Festivals, and aired as part of the 30 for 30 series airing on the ABC and ESPN sister networks. This film adds "rich contextual layers to the case, including a dive into the history of Los Angeles race relations that played such a central role in his acquittal."[220] James Poniewozik observed in his New York Times review that "the director Ezra Edelman pulls back, way back, like a news chopper over a freeway chase. Before you hear about the trial, the documentary says, you need to hear all the stories – the stories of race, celebrity, sports, America – that it's a part of."[221] The film won the 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[222]
In FX's cable TV miniseries The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story (2016), based on Jeffrey Toobin's book The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson (1997), Simpson is portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr.[223] It focuses on the events of the trial, and specifically Simpson's associates during it.[16]
Fox's TV special O.J. Simpson: The Lost Confession? (2018) features an interview Simpson gave in 2006 with publisher Judith Regan, where he gave "hypothetical" details about his role in the murders.[224][225] Though Simpson stated that the details he described were hypothetical, the interview was considered to be an implied confession to the murders.[224][226][227][228][229] In 2018, it was announced Boris Kodjoe would portray Simpson in a film titled Nicole & O.J.[230] The film was never completed. In 2020, Court TV premiered OJ25, a 25-part series documenting each week of the trial and hosted by former Los Angeles prosecutor and legal analyst Roger Cossack.[231]
Exhibits
The Bronco from Simpson's police chase is on display in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee's Alcatraz East Crime Museum.[232][233]
In 2017, Adam Papagan curated a pop-up museum featuring artifacts and ephemera from the trial at Coagula Curatorial gallery in Los Angeles.[234][235]