O.J. Simpson was famous for football, but he was also notorious off the field. His family said he died Wednesday. He was 76 years old. Simpson was in hospice care because he had cancer.
"On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, gave up the fight with cancer," Simpson's family wrote in a post on X. "He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren."
Anyone who watched Simpson's murder trial on TV every day and saw how divided the country was by race will always remember him more for that than for anything else he did as a football player. One of the most watched TV moments ever was when he was found not guilty of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994. Another was Simpson's slow-speed Ford Bronco chase through Southern California freeways after he was charged with the murders and did not turn himself in.
Before the trial that most Americans found so interesting, Simpson was already famous. Without the football field, he was one of the most famous people in the world.
Not many football players get as much attention as Simpson did in the 1970s. When does Rolling Stone magazine put an NFL player on the cover?
The 1970s saw Simpson reach a new, larger public through an ad campaign for Hertz rental cars. Simpson's run through the airport to get to the Hertz counter was one of the most famous and popular ads of all time.
"Before that, about 30% of the people I met knew who I was, and they liked football." Now I would say it is more like 90%," Simpson told Rolling Stone for their 1977 cover story.
The race part of the Hertz ad was also important. It was a turning point when Simpson proved that a Black spokesman could make a good sales pitch. The effort altered ads for good.
Even though Simpson's playing career was coming to an end after two quiet years with the San Francisco 49ers in 1978 and 1979, he was still a big star.
Simpson had a great voice and got a lot of acting jobs. Before he became an actor, he played football for the Bills. His most famous part was as Nordberg in "The Naked Gun" movie series. Simpson may have been more well-known in the 1980s than almost any NFL player of that time. He was a TV announcer as well, and one of his most sought-after jobs was on "Monday Night Football."
There is a lot of talk about how Simpson became popular with white people in "OJ: Made in America." People who knew Simpson said in the video that he often said, "I am not Black, I am O.J."
What an irony that the man who did not care about his race was in the middle of a double murder trial that split America along racial lines.
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were killed outside of Nicole's Brentwood home on June 12, 1994.
Over the next year and a half, there were many events and people that will live on in history and pop culture: the Bronco chase that broke TV records; the "dream team" of lawyers who made Johnnie Cochran a star; bloody gloves; "If it does not fit, you must acquit"; Kato Kaelin, Lance Ito, Marcia Clark, and Christopher Darden becoming instant celebrities; and the rise of famous trials as reality TV shows.
On Oct. 3, 1995, Simpson was found not guilty. Many Black people were happy with the result, in large part because of the wrongdoing by the Los Angeles Police Department that came to light during the hearing. On the other hand, a lot of white people were furious. The trial made the racial split in the US very clear.
A civil trial in 1997 found Simpson guilty of the killings and ordered him to pay the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman $25 million in severe damages. That was only a small part of one of the most famous crime cases in U.S. history.
Simpson was found guilty of robbery and kidnapping in 2008 and blamed an incident at a Las Vegas hotel in 2007 where he thought sports items had been stolen from him. The decision came 13 years to the day after the murder trial found the person not guilty.
Prior to his release, Simpson spent nine years in a Nevada jail.
Simpson would always be known for the double murder trial. People were still crazy about it more than 20 years later. In 2016, FX showed "The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story," which was a big hit, and later that same year, ESPN showed the highly acclaimed five-part documentary "O.J.: Made in America."
People will learn more about Simpson's impact, which is unlike any other in American sports history, after he dies.
"On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, gave up the fight with cancer," Simpson's family wrote in a post on X. "He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren."
Anyone who watched Simpson's murder trial on TV every day and saw how divided the country was by race will always remember him more for that than for anything else he did as a football player. One of the most watched TV moments ever was when he was found not guilty of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994. Another was Simpson's slow-speed Ford Bronco chase through Southern California freeways after he was charged with the murders and did not turn himself in.
Before the trial that most Americans found so interesting, Simpson was already famous. Without the football field, he was one of the most famous people in the world.
Not many football players get as much attention as Simpson did in the 1970s. When does Rolling Stone magazine put an NFL player on the cover?
The 1970s saw Simpson reach a new, larger public through an ad campaign for Hertz rental cars. Simpson's run through the airport to get to the Hertz counter was one of the most famous and popular ads of all time.
"Before that, about 30% of the people I met knew who I was, and they liked football." Now I would say it is more like 90%," Simpson told Rolling Stone for their 1977 cover story.
The race part of the Hertz ad was also important. It was a turning point when Simpson proved that a Black spokesman could make a good sales pitch. The effort altered ads for good.
Even though Simpson's playing career was coming to an end after two quiet years with the San Francisco 49ers in 1978 and 1979, he was still a big star.
Simpson had a great voice and got a lot of acting jobs. Before he became an actor, he played football for the Bills. His most famous part was as Nordberg in "The Naked Gun" movie series. Simpson may have been more well-known in the 1980s than almost any NFL player of that time. He was a TV announcer as well, and one of his most sought-after jobs was on "Monday Night Football."
There is a lot of talk about how Simpson became popular with white people in "OJ: Made in America." People who knew Simpson said in the video that he often said, "I am not Black, I am O.J."
What an irony that the man who did not care about his race was in the middle of a double murder trial that split America along racial lines.
Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were killed outside of Nicole's Brentwood home on June 12, 1994.
Over the next year and a half, there were many events and people that will live on in history and pop culture: the Bronco chase that broke TV records; the "dream team" of lawyers who made Johnnie Cochran a star; bloody gloves; "If it does not fit, you must acquit"; Kato Kaelin, Lance Ito, Marcia Clark, and Christopher Darden becoming instant celebrities; and the rise of famous trials as reality TV shows.
On Oct. 3, 1995, Simpson was found not guilty. Many Black people were happy with the result, in large part because of the wrongdoing by the Los Angeles Police Department that came to light during the hearing. On the other hand, a lot of white people were furious. The trial made the racial split in the US very clear.
A civil trial in 1997 found Simpson guilty of the killings and ordered him to pay the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman $25 million in severe damages. That was only a small part of one of the most famous crime cases in U.S. history.
Simpson was found guilty of robbery and kidnapping in 2008 and blamed an incident at a Las Vegas hotel in 2007 where he thought sports items had been stolen from him. The decision came 13 years to the day after the murder trial found the person not guilty.
Prior to his release, Simpson spent nine years in a Nevada jail.
Simpson would always be known for the double murder trial. People were still crazy about it more than 20 years later. In 2016, FX showed "The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story," which was a big hit, and later that same year, ESPN showed the highly acclaimed five-part documentary "O.J.: Made in America."
People will learn more about Simpson's impact, which is unlike any other in American sports history, after he dies.
