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O. J. Simpson

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O. J. Simpson at NFL.com Edit this at WikidataOrenthal James Simpson (born July 9, 1947 in San Francisco, California), publicly known by the initials O.J., and nicknamed The Juice, was a Hall of Fame college and professional football player and film actor. Although considered to be one of the greatest running backs of all time, Simpson is most recently known for being charged with the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in 1994. He was acquitted in criminal court in 1995 after a lengthy, highly publicized trial (often called the Trial of the Century). Subsequently, Simpson was found liable for their deaths in civil court in 1997.

Football career

High school

While attending Galileo High School in San Francisco, Simpson played for the school's football team, the Galileo Lions. While attending high school, he met Michael Jackson.

College

After originally playing in Junior College at the City College of San Francisco, his talent landed him at the University of Southern California (USC) and won him the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award, induction into the College Football Hall of Fame and the distinction of being the first player selected in the 1969 professional football draft.

NFL

Simpson was selected by the American Football League's Buffalo Bills, who held the first selection in the draft after finishing 1-12-1 in 1968 — the worst record in professional football. Early in his NFL career, Simpson struggled on the poor Buffalo teams averaging only 622 yards per season. He first rushed for 1,000 yards in 1972. In 1973 Simpson ran for a then-record 2,003 yards, becoming the first player ever to eclipse the 2,000 yard mark, and was voted the league's Most Valuable Player. Although his 2,003 yard season has subsequently been eclipsed by four running backs, only Barry Sanders managed to match Simpson by rushing for 2,000 or more yards in 14 games (Weeks 3-16 of the 1997 season; including Weeks 1 & 2, Sanders rushed for 2,053 yards. Eric Dickerson holds the 16-game season and overall records with 2,105 yards rushing in 1984).

Simpson's yards per game average was ten yards higher than that of the closest competitor. "The Juice" powered one of the league's top rushing offenses, and ran behind the famed "Electric Company" offensive line. His 1973 performance earned him the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year. Over his career, Simpson ran for an NFL record 6 200-yard games, three of which occurred in 1973. He also had back-to-back 200 yard performances in both 1973 and 1976.

Simpson went on to earn All-Pro honors five times. He finished his 11-year career in 1979 with 11,236 rushing yards, 203 receptions for 2,142 receiving yards, and 75 touchdowns(61 rushing and 14 receiving). After being traded to the San Francisco 49ers in 1978, Simpson retired from the NFL the following year, and on January 23, 1985 became the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He is a member of the Bills' Wall of Fame.

Away from football but within sports, he won the 1975 American Superstars competition.

Family life

Simpson has eight siblings named George, Sue, Emily, Abraham, Kyra, Kirsten, Bryant, and Jim.

In his childhood, O.J. fought off a great deal of adversity. From ages three to five, he had to wear homemade braces after contracting rickets. In 1960, he joined the Persian Warriors, a San Francisco street gang, and was even incarcerated at the San Francisco Youth Guidance Center in 1962.

On June 24, 1967 Simpson married Marguerite L. Whitley. Together they had three children: Arnelle L. Simpson (born December 4, 1968), Jason L. Simpson (born April 21, 1970) and Aaren Lashone Simpson (born September 24, 1977). In 1979, Aaren drowned in the family's swimming pool a month before her second birthday. That same year Simpson and Marguerite were divorced.

On February 2, 1985 Simpson married Nicole Brown. They had two children, Sydney Brooke Simpson (born October 17, 1985) and Justin Ryan Simpson (born August 6, 1988), and were divorced in 1992. As of March 7, 2006, OJ Simpson is the father of Jessebelle Susie Parket Jr. The mother is still unknown.

Acting

After his retirement from football, Simpson went on to a successful film career with parts in films such as the television mini-series Roots, and the motion pictures The Cassandra Crossing, Capricorn One, The Towering Inferno, and The Naked Gun trilogy. Simpson was considered for the lead role in The Terminator, before it was decided audiences might not accept him as a villain. Claims were, that O.J. was too "nice" for the role of the cold endoskeleton cyborg known as the Terminator.

Simpson's amiable persona and natural charisma landed him numerous endorsement deals. He was a spokesman for the Hertz rental car company (Ford vehicles are usually found in Hertz rental fleets, hence the nickname 'Simpsons' for the cars). He would often be shown running through airports, as if to suggest he was back on the football field.

Simpson was spokesman for the pX Corporation, and he appeared in comic book ads for Dingo shoes.

Besides his acting career, Simpson had stints as a commentator for Monday Night Football and The NFL on NBC. He also hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live, but he was the only host not invited to attend the program's 25th anniversary celebration special in 2000.

Homicide of his ex-wife and trial

Main article: O.J. Simpson murder case

Simpson had pled no contest to a domestic violence charge and was separated from Nicole. He was paying child support. On June 12, 1994 his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman were found dead outside Brown's condominium. Simpson was soon charged with their murders. After one of the most widely publicized arrests and trials in American history, on October 3, 1995, Simpson was found not guilty of the two murders. The verdict was seen live on TV by more than half the US population, making it one of the most watched events in American TV history. There have been significant criticisms of the prosecution, and many contend that Simpson should have been found guilty. With the damage done to his public reputation, his acting career was ruined.

Civil trial

File:O J Simpson.jpg
O.J. Simpson's mugshot, taken in 1994

On February 4, 1997 a civil jury in Santa Monica, California found Simpson liable for the wrongful death of Ronald Goldman, battery against Ronald Goldman, and battery against Nicole Brown. Attorney for plaintiff Fred Goldman (father of Ronald Goldman) was Daniel Petrocelli. Simpson was ordered to pay $33,500,000 in damages. However, California law protects pensions from being used to satisfy judgments, so Simpson was able to continue much of his lifestyle based on his NFL pension. A 2000 Rolling Stone article reported that Simpson also still makes a significant income by signing autographs. He subsequently moved from California to Miami, Florida. In Florida a person's residence cannot be seized to collect a debt under most circumstances.

Simpson has not filed for bankruptcy.

Custody trial

While Simpson was in prison during the murder trial, Nicole Brown's parents, Louis and Juditha Brown, had custody of Simpson's younger children, Sydney and Justin. When Simpson was acquitted, he was given custody of the children. In late 1998 Simpson won a custody trial filed by the Browns. The ruling was thrown out when an appeals court determined that it was wrong to exclude evidence from the murder trial [1]. In 2000, Simpson won custody of his children in a second trial.

After the trials

Even after his two trials Simpson was never far from the news. He seemed to have a knack for appearing in news stories that often had nothing directly to do with him. He was accused of illegally accessing signals from DirecTV. In 1998 at the end of an interview conducted by Ruby Wax for BBC1, Simpson mimed stabbing her with a banana while mimicking the theme music from Psycho.

In 2001, he was tried for burglary and battery in a Florida road rage case that received some publicity, but he was again found not guilty. This verdict was also covered on live national television on an October morning.

There were plans for him to have a reality TV show in the style of The Osbournes in 2003. Also, Simpson considered becoming a news commentator for actor Robert Blake's murder trial. [citation needed]

During 2003, Simpson filmed a Pay-Per-View comedy special titled Juiced. The show, a hidden camera set up show, drew criticism for a sketch where Simpson attempts to sell the infamous White Ford Bronco at a used car lot, telling the salesman "It was good for me. It helped me get away." A DVD is planned with extra and uncensored material. [citation needed]

Prior to the 2004 Orange Bowl football game featuring Simpson's USC Trojans, the former football star showed up unannounced at a USC practice. The Southern California coach Pete Carroll allowed Simpson to come onto the field and mingle with the players and pose for pictures. Carroll responded to the criticism by proclaiming "we respect our Heisman Trophy winners."

In June 2004, Simpson had planned a long series of news appearances to mark the tenth anniversary of the killings, but ended up being displaced by another story, the death and funeral of former President Reagan.

The civil and criminal trials of Simpson were not the only important legal cases that were spawned by the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman on June 12, 1994.

  • Gerald Chamales and his wife, Kathleen, bought a house next to Simpson's estate in Brentwood at the corner of Ashford and Rockingham just ten days before the murders of which he was accused. The media circus and hordes of curious tourists tormented them (and the rest of Simpson's neighbors) for the next four years. Their subsequent legal battle with the IRS culminated in the rule that they could not apply the drop in their house's value as a casualty loss deduction on their income tax return, because it was only temporary.
  • Simpson's houseguest on the night of the murders, Brian "Kato" Kaelin, sued Globe Communications for $15 million after it ran a headline in one of its tabloid newspapers insinuating that Kaelin was the real murderer. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendant, but on appeal, Kaelin convinced the Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit that he had a valid claim for defamation. Kaelin settled his lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.
  • A New Hampshire intellectual property attorney, William B. Ritchie, challenged the validity of Simpson's trademarks under a federal statute that bars immoral, deceptive, or scandalous subject matter. Ritchie argued that because of the whole sequence of events from 1994 through 1997, Simpson's very name had become immoral and scandalous and thus could not be protected as a trademark. Ritchie convinced the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that he had standing to challenge Simpson's trademarks under the Lanham Act. Simpson has since abandoned his trademarks.
  • O.J. was referenced, coincidentally years before the murder case, in an episode of Seinfeld, "The Masseuse", in which Elaine suggests her then-boyfriend, Joel Rifkin, change his name to O.J. Subsequent to Simpson's murder trial, the infamous "glove incident" was parodied in the trial of Elaine's arch-enemy Sue Ellen Mischke who tries on a bra in the courtroom only to proclaim "it doesn't fit."
  • Simpson's search for his wife's killer was parodied in the Doonesbury comic strip.
  • In the popular Grand Theft Auto series of videogames, the character B.J. Smith is a parody of O.J. Simpson. B.J. was a former football player, was in a police chase, and was in a controversial murder trial within the scope of the three PlayStation 2 GTA games.[citation needed]
  • Simpson was parodied in a sketch on Saturday Night Live in which Simpson, played by Tim Meadows, works for NBC as an NFL color commentator. When using the telestrator to describe a play, he unknowingly spells out "I Did It" in big letters.
  • In an episode of The Saturday Night Armistice, British satirist, Armando Iannucci was filmed getting an autograph from O.J. during a trip to the UK. After being filmed getting the autograph, (and with O.J. safely out of sight) he unfolded the paper the autograph was on to reveal that the top half of the paper read "I DID IT, Signed...", followed by the autograph.
  • In an episode of Family Guy, it is heavily implied that Stewie Griffin planted jealousy on O.J.'s mind while drunk on Mai Tais by saying "I'm telling you, Juice. She's screwing behind your back. And if I were in your Bruno Maglis, I wouldn't stand for it."
  • The video game Duke Nukem 3D has references throughout the game including a chase scene on a T.V. of Simpson's white Bronco as well as giant billboards saying "innocent?" and "Guilty!".
  • In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer was accused of a murder. A newspaper headline said "The Ho.J Simpson trial begins today" as a delibrate reference to O.J.
  • Rock band The Moistboyz have a song entitled O.G. Simpson, the front cover of the single features a police mugshot of O.J.

Filmography

Civil trial

Preceded by Heisman Trophy Winner
1968 		Succeeded by
Preceded by NFL Most Valuable Player
1973 season 		Succeeded by
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