Former NFL running back O.J. Simpson dies of cancer at age 76

O.J. Simpson, who was as extraordinary on the football field as he was questionable off it, surpassed the realm of football.

A revered All-American at USC, Simpson developed into an excellent running back with the Buffalo Bills in NFL history. He became a mainstream celebrity as an actor and broadcaster before his reputation took a turn. He became one of the most infamous murder suspects in American history and eventually served almost nine years in prison for an unrelated armed robbery conviction.

Simpson died of cancer on Wednesday, according to a statement released on his official X account. He was 76 years old.

Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, Simpson gained further fame after retirement as an NFL commentator and Hollywood actor. However, his fame abruptly turned to notoriety in June 1994 when his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were murdered at her Brentwood, California home. Simpson was charged with their murders but was found not guilty in a controversial, highly publicized trial. This forever tarnished Simpson’s reputation, overshadowing his impressive football career and subsequent celebrity status.

Orenthal James Simpson, also known as O.J. or “Juice,” was born on July 9, 1947, in San Francisco.

His college football journey began at San Francisco City College, where he accumulated 54 touchdowns and 2,552 rushing yards during the 1965 and ’66 seasons. He then transferred to USC, where under the guidance of renowned coach John McKay, Simpson emerged as one of the most honored players in the illustrious history of the Trojans’ program.

As a junior in 1967, Simpson led the nation with 1,543 yards rushing, adding 13 rushing touchdowns (and three TD passes) while guiding USC to a national championship. Simpson finished runner-up in Heisman Trophy voting to UCLA quarterback Gary Beban that year, but he was the catalyst in the Trojans’ rivalry win over the Bruins. In one of the most lauded plays in USC history, Simpson broke loose for a 64-yard, game-tying, fourth-quarter TD run. The extra point vaulted the Trojans ahead, 21-20, which held as the final score.

Though USC did not repeat as national champion in ’68, Simpson’s senior campaign was one of the greatest in college football history. En route to winning the Heisman, Simpson put up staggering numbers to the tune of a then-NCAA-record 1,880 yards rushing and a nation-leading 23 touchdowns. Simpson won the Heisman by 1,750 points, a record that would stand for 51 years before LSU QB Joe Burrow‘s resounding triumph in 2019. No. 2 USC ended the season with a Rose Bowl loss to top-ranked Ohio State, but Simpson concluded his career with 171 yards rushing in the game.

Following a disappointing season with only one win in 1968, the Bills were in possession of the No. 1 pick for the 1969 NFL/AFL Draft. As expected, they selected Simpson as their first choice. Despite this, Simpson did not immediately rush to upstate New York. Already an established star before turning professional, Simpson found himself in a dispute with Ralph Wilson, the then-owner of the Bills. Eventually, he was granted a five-year contract worth $650,000 – a record-breaking figure at the time. However, Simpson’s tenure in Buffalo did not begin on the best note.

In his initial three seasons with the Bills, Simpson experienced a mere eight victories under the leadership of head coaches John Rauch and Harvey Johnson. Despite becoming a Pro Bowler in his rookie season and achieving a total of 1,040 yards from scrimmage along with catching 30 passes (marking his career high), these achievements didn’t reflect his frustrations on the field. He didn’t even come close to achieving 1,000 rushing yards in those initial three seasons.

Simpson’s career took off when Lou Saban became the head coach in 1972. He not only made a comeback to the Pro Bowl but also clinched the first rushing title with a performance of 1,251 yards. The following year, 1973, marked one of the most remarkable seasons for a running back in NFL history, where Simpson displayed an extraordinary performance.

In the 14-game campaign, Simpson ran for 2,003 yards, shattering Jim Brown’s single-season rushing record of 1,863 yards set in 1963. Simpson sat alone in the 2,000-yard club until Eric Dickerson joined him in 1984 — though Simpson, who averaged an astounding 143.1 ground yards per game, remains the only player to have accomplished the feat in fewer than 16 games. Simpson, who also led the league with 332 carries and 12 rushing TDs, was named league MVP. Simpson’s yards-per-game tally is still the highest single-season mark in league history by a full 10 yards, and he remains one of just eight players to have ever hit the 2,000-yard milestone mark.

In the 1973 season, Buffalo registered a 9-5 record. This marked the first instance in Simpson’s career where the Bills ended with a record higher than .500, although they did not make the playoffs. Simpson was the standout player, and his exceptional performance led to the nickname “The Electric Company.” While occasionally used to describe the offense in general, this moniker mainly pertained to the offensive line which blocked for Simpson, metaphorically “turning on the Juice.” This squad was spearheaded by Hall of Fame right guard Joe DeLamielleure and also featured left tackle Dave Foley, left guard Reggie McKenzie, center Mike Montler, and right tackle Donnie Green.

From 1972 to ’76, Simpson claimed all four of his career rushing titles. 1974 was the only year he didn’t secure the title, which coincidentally, was the only year of his career that he made it to the playoffs. In the ’74 season, Simpson racked up 1,125 yards and a mere three rushing touchdowns. However, the Bills greatly benefited from a defense led by Tony Greene. That year, a 9-5 record was enough for a playoff spot, but the Bills were defeated by the Pittsburgh Steelers 32-14 in the AFC Divisional Round. In a game that was essentially over, Simpson managed to catch a short touchdown pass from Joe Ferguson but was limited to only 49 yards on 15 carries.

His professional career was truly defined by a productive five-season period in the mid-1970s. He failed to reach 1,000 yards or score more than five touchdowns in his remaining six seasons. After his 1,503-yard victory in the 1976 rushing crown, injury confined Simpson to only seven games in the 1977 season. During the following offseason, he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a number of draft picks. His last two seasons were disappointing, participating in only 23 out of 32 possible games and rushing a total of 1,053 yards over two dismal 2-14 seasons for the 49ers. His yards per carry dropped to 3.7 in 1978 and 3.8 in 1979, a stark contrast to the high-performing player he used to be.

Despite this, at the time of his retirement, Simpson was second in the league’s history with 11,236 career rushing yards, only behind Brown who had 12,312. He had six Pro Bowl appearances in his 11-season career, including nine with the Bills and two with the 49ers, and received five first-team All-Pro recognitions. Simpson was also inducted into the Hall of Fame All-Decade Team for the 1970s and the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Simpson’s post-playing career had already gotten underway long before his final season. He was a professional actor prior to becoming a professional football player, and more than 15 of his nearly 40 acting credits came prior to his final season of 1979. Among Simpson’s most notable roles: playing “Nordberg” in the Naked Gun movies.

Perhaps his greatest fame on the small screen came in 1975, when he became a spokesman for the rental car company Hertz, filming an iconic commercial in which Simpson sprinted through an airport, hurdling obstacles as an onlooker yelled, “Go, O.J., go!” It was also in 1975 when People magazine declared Simpson “the first [B]lack athlete to become a bona fide lovable media superstar.”

Though retired from the playing field, Simpson remained a star in the NFL world as an analyst and more so an on-field interviewer. From 1983 through ’85, Simpson was a color commentator on Monday Night Football. He was a staple of The NFL on NBC for years, as well, and also a commentator for ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

Simpson, however, did not contest a domestic violence charge against his wife in 1989. Fast forward to summer 1994, Brown Simpson and Goldman were discovered murdered, and O.J. rapidly emerged as a potential suspect in the killings.

The authorities filed charges and issued an arrest warrant for Simpson. He was supposed to surrender himself on the morning of June 17, but instead, he initiated a slow-speed chase with the police. His friend and former high school, college, and NFL teammate, Al Cowlings was at the wheel of a white Ford Bronco that ended up at O.J.’s house. The chase turned into a nationwide event, broadcasted live on every major TV network, including NBC, which interrupted the 1994 NBA Finals for the coverage. The chase spanned over two hours, attracting crowds of Los Angeles residents on freeway overpasses and streets to watch the peculiar scene. Simpson surrendered to the police almost an hour after reaching his home.

The murder trial that followed was a media frenzy like never before. The defense team for Simpson, known as the “Dream Team”, consisted of prominent attorneys including Robert Shapiro, Johnnie Cochran, Robert Kardashian, F. Lee Bailey, and Alan Dershowitz. The trial spanned 11 months and the final verdict, announced on October 3, 1995, caused a disruption in school schedules as the entire nation eagerly tuned in. Simpson was acquitted of both murders. Following Simpson’s acquittal, no further arrests were made in the murder cases of Brown Simpson and Goldman.

Simpson was confronted with a wrongful death civil lawsuit a year later. On this occasion, video and still cameras were not allowed in the courtroom. The trial commenced on October 23, 1996, and concluded on February 5, 1997, with the jury unanimously ruling that Simpson was responsible for wrongful death. He was instructed to compensate the victims’ families with $33.5 million in damages.

Ten years later, Simpson found himself in trouble with the law once more due to an incident in Las Vegas. He, along with several other men, forcefully took a collection of sports memorabilia from a room in the Palace Station hotel on September 13, 2007. Simpson maintained that the items in question had been stolen from him. On October 3, 2008, exactly 13 years after his acquittal in the double-murder trial, a jury convicted Simpson on 12 counts, including armed robbery and kidnapping. He received a 33-year prison sentence on December 5, 2008, with the possibility of parole after nine years. After serving nearly a decade, Simpson was granted parole on July 20, 2017.

O.J. Simpson, a cultural icon and all-world athlete, rose from humble beginnings to stardom, only to experience a shocking downfall that unfolded under national scrutiny. In a grimly appropriate manner, every phase of his adult life, whether admirable, deplorable, or atrocious, was illuminated by the public spotlight.

“As a kid growing up in the ghetto, one of the things I wanted most was not money — it was fame,” Simpson said, per O.J.: Made in America, an ESPN documentary that garnered widespread attention in 2016, along with an FX miniseries from that same year, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. “I wanted to be known. I wanted people to say, ‘There goes O.J.’ “