O. J. Simpson

O. J. Simpson
Simpson in 1990
Born	Orenthal James Simpson (1947-07-09)July 9, 1947 San Francisco, California, U.S.
Died	April 10, 2024(2024-04-10) (aged 76) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.
Other names	The Juice
Alma mater	University of Southern California
Occupations	Professional football player actor sports broadcaster spokesman
Known for	Football career murder trial robbery case
Criminal charges	Armed robbery kidnapping (2007)
Criminal penalty	33 years' imprisonment 9 years without parole (2008)
Criminal status	Acquitted (1995) Convicted (2008) Paroled (2017) Discharged from parole (2021)
Spouses	Marguerite Whitley ​ ​ (m. 1967; div. 1979)​ Nicole Brown ​ ​ (m. 1985; div. 1992)​
Children	5
American football player American football career
No. 32
Position:	Running back
Personal information
Height:	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight:	212 lb (96 kg)
Career information
High school:	Galileo (San Francisco, California)
College:	CCSF (1965–1966) USC (1967–1968)
NFL draft:	1969 / Round: 1 / Pick: 1
Career history
Buffalo Bills (1969–1977) San Francisco 49ers (1978–1979)
Career highlights and awards
NFL Most Valuable Player (1973) NFL Offensive Player of the Year (1973) 5× First-team All-Pro (1972–1976) 5× Pro Bowl (1972–1976) AFL All-Star (1969) Bert Bell Award (1973) AP Athlete of the Year (1973) 3× UPI AFC Offensive Player of the Year (1972, 1973, 1975) 4× NFL rushing yards leader (1972, 1973, 1975, 1976) 2× NFL rushing touchdowns leader (1973, 1975) NFL scoring leader (1975) NFL 1970s All-Decade Team NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame National champion (1967) Heisman Trophy (1968) Maxwell Award (1968) 2× Walter Camp Award (1967, 1968) 2× UPI Player of the Year (1967, 1968) SN Player of the Year (1968) Chic Harley Award (1968) 2× Unanimous All-American (1967, 1968) Pop Warner Trophy (1968) 2× First-team All-Pac-8 (1967, 1968) USC Trojans No. 32 retired NJCAA All-American (1966)
Career NFL statistics
Rushing yards: 11,236 Rushing average: 4.7 Rushing touchdowns: 61 Receptions: 203 Receiving yards: 2,142 Receiving touchdowns: 14
Player stats at PFR
Pro Football Hall of Fame
College Football Hall of Fame
Signature

Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024) was an American football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. Simpson is regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time, but 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.

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. Simpson 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 sportscaster, and was a spokesman for a wide variety of products and companies, notably Hertz. He was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.

Brown and Goldman were stabbed to death in Los Angeles on the night of June 12, 1994. Four days later, Simpson was arrested on murder charges following a televised incident in which he tried to flee from the police on a Los Angeles highway. His internationally publicized murder trial exacerbated racial divisions in the U.S. and culminated with his acquittal on October 3, 1995. Three years later, he was found liable for the murders in a civil suit from the victims' families but paid little the $33.5 million judgment. In 2007, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, and charged with armed robbery and kidnapping. He was convicted the following year 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. For the remainder of his life, he resided in Florida and Nevada, dying from cancer at age 76 in 2024.