Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024), nicknamed "the Juice", was an American football player, actor, and media personality. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons—nine with the Buffalo Bills—and is regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time. His success is widely considered to be overshadowed by his two criminal charges for the 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman, and the contentious criminal trial in which he was acquitted on both counts.
Simpson played college football for the USC Trojans, winning the 1968 Heisman Trophy as a senior. He was selected first overall by the Bills in the 1969 NFL/AFL draft. With the Bills, he received five consecutive Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro selections from 1972 to 1976. He 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 1973's NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP) award—and he is the only player to do so in a 14-game regular season. He also holds the record for the single-season yards-per-game average, at 143.1.
After retiring with the San Francisco 49ers in 1979, Simpson was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and Pro Football Hall of Fame. He acted in film and television—notably, in the Naked Gun film franchise—and was also a sportscaster for NBC and ABC, and a celebrity spokesman for various brands like Hertz.
Brown and Goldman were fatally stabbed at Brown's home in Los Angeles on June 12, 1994. Simpson was issued an arrest warrant for the murders on June 17, and within hours, he and his friend Al Cowlings had gone missing, as Cowlings drove him away from public view in a white Ford Bronco. Authorities found the car, and then chased it across L.A. County as Simpson threatened suicide with a gun. Aerial telecopter footage of the chase was broadcast live to about 95 million concurrent viewers.
Simpson's murder trial from January to October 1995 was also televised, and received international publicity. It exacerbated racial divisions in the U.S.; Simpson, a black man, was accused of killing two white people, while his defense team claimed that the L.A. Police Department had tried to frame him for the crime in an act of racist corruption. Simpson's acquittal was viewed on television by approximately 100–150 million people. In 1997, he was found liable for the murders in a civil case brought by the victims' families; he ultimately paid little of the resulting $33.5 million judgment. A 2007 nonfiction book that Simpson co-authored detailed a hypothetical scenario in which he committed both murders and then escaped punishment; he still claimed that in reality, he was innocent.
In 2007, Simpson took part in an armed robbery of sports memorabilia in Las Vegas that involved kidnapping and assault. For this, he was convicted in 2008, and sentenced to 33 years' imprisonment, with a minimum of nine years without parole. He was incarcerated at Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada until 2017, when he was released on parole. He then lived in Florida and Nevada until his death in 2024 from cancer.
Early life Born in 1947 in San Francisco, California, Simpson was a son of Eunice (), an orderly at a psychiatric ward, and Jimmy Lee Simpson, a custodian for a Federal Reserve Bank and a private club and a cook. His father was also a well-known drag queen in the Bay Area and later in his life came out as gay. He died of AIDS in 1986.
Simpson's maternal grandparents were from Louisiana. His aunt gave him the name Orenthal, which she told him was the name of a French or Italian actor she liked. He was called "O.J." from birth and did not know that Orenthal was his given name until a teacher read it in third grade. Simpson had one brother, Melvin Leon "Truman" Simpson, one living sister, Shirley Simpson-Baker, and one deceased sister, Carmelita Simpson-Durio.
Simpson grew up in San Francisco and lived with his family in the housing projects of the low-income Potrero Hill neighborhood. In 1952, when Simpson was age 4, his parents separated, and afterwards, he and his siblings were raised by their mother. As a child, Simpson developed rickets, and wore leg braces until the age of five, giving him his bowlegged stance. He earned money by scalping tickets and collecting seat cushions at Kezar Stadium.
In his early teenage years, Simpson joined a street gang called the Persian Warriors and was briefly incarcerated at the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center. His future wife Marguerite, whom he dated in high school, described him as "really an awful person then." He was arrested three times. After his third arrest, Simpson happened to meet baseball star Willie Mays, who encouraged the youth to avoid trouble. He said it helped persuade him to reform.
Simpson first practiced sports at the Potrero Hill Recreation Center, which welcomed black people. At Galileo High School (now Galileo Academy of Science and Technology) in San Francisco, Simpson played for the school football team, the Galileo Lions. He played as a tackle and then as a fullback. Meanwhile, he started earning money by organizing dances and charging admission. He graduated in 1965.
College football and track career Although Simpson was an All-City football player at Galileo, his mediocre high-school grades prevented him from attracting the interest of many college recruiters. After a childhood friend's injury in the Vietnam War influenced Simpson to stay out of the military, he enrolled at City College of San Francisco in 1965. He played football both as a running back and defensive back and was named to the Junior College All-American team as a running back. Simpson also ran for the City College of San Francisco Rams track and field team. City College won the Prune Bowl against Long Beach City College, and many colleges sought Simpson as a transfer student for football.
In 1967, Simpson enrolled at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, which he had admired as a young football fan. He had also considered going to the University of Utah. He played running back with the Trojans for head coach John McKay in 1967 and 1968. Simpson led the nation in rushing both years under McKay: in 1967 with 1,543 yards and 13 touchdowns, and in 1968 with 1,880 yards on 383 carries.
In its 1967 game against its crosstown rival UCLA, USC was down by six points in the fourth quarter with under 11 minutes remaining. On its own 36, USC backup quarterback Toby Page called an audible on third and seven. Simpson's 64-yard touchdown run tied the score, and the extra point provided a 21–20 lead, which was the final score. This was the biggest play in what is regarded as one of the greatest football games of the 20th century,Peters, Nick. (1988) "College Football's Twenty-Five Greatest Teams". The Sporting News. Number 9 Southern California Trojans 1967; . and pictures of the play were published in many national magazines. Another dramatic touchdown in the same game is the subject of the Arnold Friberg oil painting, O.J. Simpson Breaks for Daylight. Simpson also won the Walter Camp Award in 1967 and was a two-time unanimous All-American.University of Southern California Football Media Guide" , p. 125 (2006 edition). USC would go on to win the national title for that year. Even though Simpson led the nation in college football rushing yards, the Heisman Trophy went to UCLA's Gary Beban; Simpson was second in voting.
Simpson was an aspiring track athlete. Before playing football at USC, he ran the third leg of a sprint relay quartet that broke the world record in the 4 × 110-yard relay at the NCAA track championships in Provo, Utah on June 17, 1967. They had a time of 38.6 seconds. Also that year, he had a 100-yard dash time of 9.53 seconds. He lost a 100 m race at Stanford University against the then-British record holder Menzies Campbell.
As Simpson rose in popularity, he avoided controversy, such as not participating in a boycott of the 1968 Olympics, which was supported by activists like Martin Luther King Jr. as a protest against racial injustice in the U.S.
As a senior in 1968, Simpson rushed for 1,709 yards and 22 touchdowns in the regular season, earning the Heisman Trophy, the Maxwell Award, and Walter Camp Award. He held the record for the Heisman's largest margin of victory for 51 years, defeating runner-up Leroy Keyes by 1,750 points. In the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day, No. 2 USC faced top-ranked Ohio State; Simpson ran for 171 yards, including an 80-yard touchdown run, in a 27–16 loss. Simpson's number 32 jersey was later retired by USC. Simpson had been a sociology student, but left USC without a degree.
NFL career
Buffalo Bills After finishing 1–12–1 in 1968, the AFL's Buffalo Bills held the first selection in the 1969 NFL/AFL draft. They took Simpson, but he demanded the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years (equivalent to $ in ). 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.Posnanski, Joe. Chasing 2,000 in '73 . NBCSports.com. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
Simpson entered professional football with high expectations, but struggled in his first three years, averaging only 622 yards per season. 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.Shrake, Edwin. The Name of the Game is O.J. . Sports Illustrated. September 6, 1971. Retrieved June 27, 2016. 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. Unlike Rauch, Saban made Simpson the centerpiece of the Bills offense.Marshall, Joe. Now You See Him, Now You Don't . Sports Illustrated. October 29, 1973. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
In 1972, Simpson rushed for over 1,000 yards for the first time in his career, gaining a league-leading total of 1,251 yards. In 1973, Simpson became the first player to break the highly coveted 2,000-yard rushing mark, with 2,003 total rushing yards and 12 touchdowns. Simpson broke the mark during the last game of the season against the New York Jets with a seven-yard rush. That same game also saw Simpson break Jim Brown's single-season rushing record of 1,863 yards.O.J. Writes History in the Snow . New York Times. December 16, 1973. Retrieved June 27, 2016. For his performance, Simpson won that year's NFL MVP Award and Bert Bell Award.Bert Bell Award Winners . Maxwell Football Club. Retrieved June 29, 2016. He was also named The Sporting News Athlete of the Year, received the Hickok Belt as the top professional athlete of the year, and was selected as the Associated Press Athlete of the Year. While other players have broken the 2,000-yard mark since Simpson, his record was established when the NFL had only 14 games per season, as opposed to the 16-game seasons that began in 1978.Schwartz, Larry. Dec. 12, 1973: Simpson reaches 2,000 yards . ESPN. November 19, 2003. Retrieved June 26, 2016. In 2013, Simpson was reported still holding the rushing record for 14 games.