On April 10th, Orenthal James Simpson died following his battle with prostate cancer. The once beloved football star was 76 years old.
The Heisman Trophy winner finished his college career at the University of Southern California in 1968 before being drafted to the Buffalo Bills in 1969. He stayed in Buffalo for 8 years before playing for the San Francisco 49ers for a year. After he retired he was inducted to both the College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame.
He then turned to Hollywood staring in several movies, commercials, hosted SNL and became a commentator for “Monday Night Football” and “The NFL on NBC”.
What “The Juice” will most be remembered for is his acquittal in the murder trial of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. Before the trial OJ was involved in a highly publicized, low speed chase with his former teammate and friend, Al Cowlings. The chase was so intense that tv stations interrupted the 1994 NBA Finals in order to broadcast the incident live. The murder trial was dubbed the “Trial of the Century” with his law team including Kim Kardashian’s father, Robert Kardashian as one of OJ’s lawyers.
Following his acquittal he was found liable for their deaths in a civil suit filled by the victims families in 1997. The rights of OJ’s book “If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer” were rewarded to the Goldman family because OJ couldn’t pay the 33.5 million dollars he owed them in damages following the civil suit.
He was arrested again in 2007 following the robbery at the Palace Station hotel-casino when OJ and a group of men entered the building and took items that OJ claimed had been stolen from him. He was then charged with armed robbery and kidnapping and sentenced to 33 years in prison. In 2017, he was granted parole after serving 9 years in prison. In 2021, Simpson was released from parole early for good behavior. In May of 2023, Simpson posted a video on X, revealing he had undergone treatment for cancer. He was undergoing treatment again in February 2024 before he died 2 months later.
