Football made him famous, but the trial made him America's Rorschach test, and neither side ever changed its mind.
At a glance
- Known for
- Heisman Trophy winner, first NFL player to rush for 2,000 yards, defendant in the 1995 murder trial
- Before fame
- Wore homemade leg braces for rickets until age five in San Francisco's Potrero Hill projects
- Off-screen
- Played Detective Nordberg in all three Naked Gun comedies
Rise to Fame
Leg braces until age five. Rickets kept him off his feet in San Francisco's Potrero Hill projects, and sub-par grades kept college recruiters away even after he starred at Galileo High. He detoured through City College of San Francisco, transferred to USC, and won the 1968 Heisman by 1,750 points over runner-up Leroy Keyes, a margin that held as a record for 51 years.
Buffalo took him first overall in 1969, then buried him in blocking assignments for three seasons. Once Lou Saban took over and built the offense around him, he broke Jim Brown's single-season rushing record with 2,003 yards in 1973. The only player to hit that mark in a 14-game season. The kid who couldn't walk straight became the most dangerous runner in football.
In the Spotlight
Ninety-five million people watched a white Bronco crawl down the I-405 on June 17, 1994. The murder trial lasted eight months. The jury took less than four hours. The acquittal cracked America along racial lines: polling showed 75% of white Americans believed he was guilty, while 70% of Black Americans thought he wasn't.
A civil jury found him liable in 1997 and ordered $33.5 million in damages. By 2015, the Goldman family had collected about $132,000 of it. He moved to Florida to shield his NFL pension from seizure. In 2007, he walked into a Las Vegas hotel room to reclaim memorabilia at gunpoint. The conviction landed on October 3, 2008, exactly 13 years to the day after his acquittal. Nobody writes irony that clean.
Side Notes
One friend on the defense team reactivated a lapsed law license just to be there. Robert Kardashian housed Simpson during the investigation, and that connection helped put the Kardashian family on the map, the trial's most improbable cultural export.
O.J.: Made in America took the Best Documentary Oscar in 2017, at nearly eight hours the longest film ever to win it. FX dramatized the trial in 2016 with The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. His story became something people couldn't stop retelling, not for the football or the slapstick comedies, but because the trial made everyone choose a side, and they're still standing there.
Final Chapter
The Pro Football Hall of Fame lowered its flag to half-mast. Fred Goldman called it "no great loss to the world." In July 2024, the Goldman family filed a $117 million creditor claim against the estate. By November, the estate agreed to pay nearly $58 million. The estate itself held between $500,000 and $1 million.