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

O.J. Simpson transcended football, being as remarkable on the field as he eventually became questionable off it.

Simpson, a cherished All-American at USC, blossomed into one of the NFL’s best running backs with the Buffalo Bills. He later gained widespread fame as an actor and broadcaster. However, he became infamous as one of America’s most high-profile murder suspects and ended up serving 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.

In 1985, Simpson was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and his fame increased after his NFL career ended, as a commentator and Hollywood actor. However, in June 1994 his fame turned into infamy when his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, were found dead at her home in Brentwood, California. Simpson was accused of murdering Brown Simpson and Goldman. Despite the charges, he was found not guilty in what became one of the most publicized and controversial trials in U.S. history. This permanently tarnished Simpson’s image, as the disgrace overshadowed his remarkable football career and the celebrity status that it brought him.

Orenthal James Simpson, who would later be widely known as O.J. or “Juice,” was born on July 9, 1947 in San Francisco.

His collegiate football career kicked off at San Francisco City College, where he accumulated 54 touchdowns and 2,552 rushing yards across the 1965 and ’66 seasons before moving to USC. Here, under the tutelage of renowned coach John McKay, Simpson emerged as one of the most distinguished Trojans in the program’s illustrious history.

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 1968 season with only one win, the Bills had the first pick in the 1969 NFL/AFL Draft. As expected, they chose Simpson. However, Simpson, who was already a star before going professional, didn’t immediately head to upstate New York. He had a confrontation with Ralph Wilson, the Bills’ owner at the time, until he was awarded a contract for five years worth $650,000, a record amount at that time. Despite this, Simpson’s tenure in Buffalo didn’t start on the best note.

In Simpson’s initial three seasons with the Bills, they only managed eight victories under the leadership of head coaches John Rauch and Harvey Johnson. Despite Simpson’s Pro Bowl rookie performance, where he amassed 1,040 total yards from scrimmage and caught 30 passes – a career high – it did not reflect his on-field frustrations. He was never able to reach 1,000 yards rushing during those first three seasons.

Simpson’s career took a significant turn when Lou Saban became the head coach in 1972. He made a comeback to the Pro Bowl and scored his first rushing title with a performance of 1,251 yards. Simpson then had an exceptional season in 1973, which is considered one of the best for a running back in NFL history.

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 had a 9-5 record. This marked the first time the Bills had surpassed .500 during Simpson’s career, though they didn’t make it to the playoffs. Simpson was the standout player, and his exceptional performance led to the nickname “The Electric Company.” While this moniker was sometimes used to describe the entire offense, it was primarily used to refer to the offensive line that blocked for Simpson, thus “turning on the Juice.” The line was led by Hall of Fame right guard Joe DeLamielleure and included left tackle Dave Foley, left guard Reggie McKenzie, center Mike Montler, and right tackle Donnie Green.

From 1972 to 1976, Simpson secured all four of his career rushing titles. The only year he didn’t win the title was in 1974, which coincidentally was the only year he participated in the playoffs. Despite finishing the ’74 season with 1,125 yards and only three rushing scores, the Bills were greatly supported by a defense led by Tony Greene. They managed to secure a postseason spot with a 9-5 record, but were easily defeated by the Pittsburgh Steelers, 32-14, in the AFC Divisional Round. Simpson only managed to catch a short TD from Joe Ferguson when the game was nearly over and was limited to just 49 yards on 15 carries.

His professional career was truly defined by a prolific five-season stretch in the mid-1970s. In his other six seasons, he never managed to hit 1,000 yards or score more than five touchdowns. Despite winning the 1976 rushing crown with 1,503 yards, an injury limited Simpson to only seven games in the 1977 season. The subsequent offseason saw him traded back to his home team, the San Francisco 49ers, in exchange for a number of draft picks. However, Simpson’s last two seasons with the 49ers were disappointing; he played in only 23 out of a possible 32 games and rushed for a total of 1,053 yards during two 2-14 seasons. His yards per carry dropped to 3.7 in 1978 and 3.8 in ’79, diminishing his once game-changing presence.

Despite his controversies, Simpson had an impressive career, ranking second in league history with 11,236 career rushing yards, surpassed only by Brown who had 12,312 yards. His career included six Pro Bowls in his 11 seasons, with nine of those seasons with the Bills and two with the 49ers. He further received five first-team All-Pro recognitions. His achievements earned him positions on the Hall of Fame All-Decade Team of 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. Following this, in the summer of 1994, Brown Simpson and Goldman were discovered dead from stab wounds. Consequently, O.J. swiftly emerged as a person of interest in the homicide cases.

Simpson was charged and a warrant for his arrest was issued. He was supposed to turn himself in on the morning of June 17, but instead, he led police on a low-speed chase, with his friend and former high school, college, and NFL teammate Al Cowlings driving a white Ford Bronco. This pursuit, which ended at Simpson’s house, became a national spectacle, broadcasted live on all major TV networks, including NBC, which interrupted the 1994 NBA Finals to cover the event. The pursuit lasted over two hours and attracted crowds of people in Los Angeles who gathered to watch the bizarre scene. About an hour after reaching his home, Simpson finally surrendered to the police.

The ensuing murder trial stirred an unparalleled media frenzy. Simpson’s defense, labeled the “Dream Team”, was made up of renowned lawyers such as Robert Shapiro, Johnnie Cochran, Robert Kardashian, F. Lee Bailey, and Alan Dershowitz. The trial lasted for 11 months, and on October 3, 1995, the day of the final verdict, the nation practically came to a standstill, with school schedules even being altered to accommodate it. Simpson was acquitted for both murders. Following Simpson’s acquittal, no further arrests were made in connection with the murders of Brown Simpson and Goldman.

Simpson was confronted with a civil lawsuit for wrongful death a year later. In this instance, neither video nor still cameras were allowed in the courtroom. The trial commenced on Oct. 23, 1996, and concluded on Feb. 5, 1997, with the jury unanimously holding Simpson responsible for wrongful death. The court ordered Simpson to compensate the victims’ families with $33.5 million in damages.

Simpson was arrested again a decade later, subsequent to an event in Las Vegas. On September 13, 2007, accompanied by a group of men, Simpson entered a room in Palace Station hotel and forcefully seized a collection of sports memorabilia at gunpoint. He claimed the items had been stolen from him. On October 3, 2008, exactly a decade and three years after his acquittal in the double-murder case, a jury convicted Simpson on 12 counts, including armed robbery and kidnapping. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison on December 5, 2008, with a chance for parole after nine years. Parole was granted to him on July 20, 2017.

O.J. Simpson was an underdog who ascended from poverty to become a world-class athlete and cultural superstar. His dramatic downfall, however, unfolded on a national stage, which was eerily appropriate. Every phase of his adult life, whether positive, negative, or abhorrent, was highlighted in the public eye.

“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.’ “