O. J. Simpson
Orenthal James Simpson, also known by his nickname "the Juice", was an American professional football player, actor, and media personality who played in the National Football League for 11 seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills. Simpson is regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time, but his success was overshadowed by his criminal 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, 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. He acquired the nickname "Juice" as a play on "OJ", a common abbreviation for orange juice. After retiring with the San Francisco 49ers in 1979, he acted in film and television, including in the Naked Gun franchise, 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.
In June 1994, Simpson was charged with murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman after they were stabbed to death in Los Angeles. His eight-month murder trial received international publicity and exacerbated racial divisions in the U.S., culminating with his acquittal in October 1995. Three years later, he was found liable for the murders in a civil suit from the victims' families but paid little of the $33.5 million judgment. In 2007, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas 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. Simpson 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.
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. Later in life, Jimmy Simpson announced that he was 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. As a child, Simpson developed rickets and wore braces on his legs until the age of five, giving him his bowlegged stance. He earned money by scalping tickets and collecting seat cushions at Kezar Stadium. After his parents separated in 1952, he and his siblings were raised by their mother.
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 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. 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 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 their 1967 game against their crosstown rival UCLA, USC was down by six points in the fourth quarter with under 11 minutes remaining. On their 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, 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. 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 people 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.
College statistics
NFL career
Buffalo Bills
The first selection in the 1969 NFL/AFL draft was held by the AFL's Buffalo Bills, after finishing 1–12–1 in 1968. They took Simpson, but he demanded the largest contract in professional sports history: $650,000 over five years. 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.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. 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.
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. For his performance, Simpson won that year's NFL MVP Award and Bert Bell Award. 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. In 2013, Simpson was reported still holding the rushing record for 14 games.
Simpson gained over 1,000 rushing yards in each of the next three seasons. He did not lead the league in rushing in 1974, but did cross the 1,000-yard barrier despite a knee injury. In game 11 of 1974, he passed Ken Willard as the rushing leader among active players, a position he maintained until his retirement more than five seasons later. Simpson also made his first and only playoff appearance during the 1974 season. In a divisional game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Simpson rushed for 49 yards on 15 attempts and caught a touchdown pass, but the Bills lost the game 32–14. Simpson won the rushing title again in 1975, rushing for 1,817 yards and 16 touchdowns. He also had a career-high 426 receiving yards and seven receiving touchdowns that season.
Simpson again led the league in rushing in 1976, rushing for 1,503 yards and eight touchdowns. He had the best game of his career during that season's Thanksgiving game against the Detroit Lions on November 25. In that game, Simpson rushed for a then-record 273 yards on 29 attempts and scored two touchdowns. Despite Simpson's performance, the Bills lost the game 27–14.
A low light that season came during a game against the New England Patriots a few weeks earlier when defensive end Mel Lunsford and several other Patriots defenders stuffed the superstar running back for no gain. Still, as Simpson tried to continue driving forward, Lunsford bodyslammed him to the ground. Simpson got up and punched Lunsford, which prompted Lunsford to swing back. Bills offensive lineman Reggie McKenzie then jumped on Lunsford's back. Still, Lunsford bent down and flung McKenzie over his head. He went back to swinging at Simpson before a melee of the two teams stopped the fight and ended up in a pile on the field. Lunsford and Simpson were ejected from the game as the Patriots' solid defense persisted, with New England winning 20–10 to finish the 1976 season 11–3. The Bills finished 2–12.
Simpson played only seven games in 1977 due to injury.