Simpson, O.J.

O.J. Simpson

1947-

American football player

O.J. Simpson's squeaky clean image and rags to riches story was the type of "only in America" success story that the sports world holds up as an example of how much can be achieved in athletics. His electrifying career with the Buffalo Bills and the endless opportunities it led to after his retirement were an inspiration to his many fans. Simpson represented an American ideal in the wake of the civil rights movement. He was accepted by white mainstream America as no other athlete had been before him and for that he enjoyed the benefit of being almost universally loved. In 1994, when he was arrested for the double murder of his ex-wife and her friend, the country became mesmerized by the unfolding events and eventually split down the dividing lines of race after his acquittal. With an overwhelmingly positive public persona and a record breaking career, O.J. Simpson's fall from grace ultimately became a sociological study in race relations and celebrity in America.

The Early Years

Born Orenthal James Simpson on July 9, 1947, in Putrero Hill, a low-income neighborhood outside of San Francisco, California, Simpson's childhood pointed to everything but a career in athletics. His father left the family while Simpson was still a toddler and his mother worked at a psychiatric ward to support her four children. Simpson developed rickets soon after birth and the disease left him pigeon-toed and bowlegged. Unable to afford surgery to correct the affliction, Simpson endured the wrath of his childhood friends who took to calling him "Pencil Pins" because of his legs. His early interest in sports was encouraged by his mother, however, and combined with his unfettered determination he would eventually achieve the excellence and acceptance he desired in his youth.

During Simpson's adolescence his experiments on the wrong side of the law would lead to a life changing meeting with San Francisco Giant hero Willie Mays . Simpson, along with friend Al "A.C." Cowlings, joined a local gang known as the Persian Warriors. After getting caught stealing, a neighborhood youth leader asked Mays to spend an afternoon with the teenage Simpson. He would recall it later in life as the first time he realized that he could achieve his dreams.

Chronology

1947	Born July 9 in San Francisco, California
1967	Enrolls at the University of Southern California
1967	Marries Marguerite Whitley
1967	Named Outstanding Player in the Rose Bowl
1968	Wins the Heisman Trophy
1968	Signs television contract with ABC
1969	Joins the Buffalo Bills
1969	Named Man of the Year by Sport magazine
1973	Breaks single season rushing record
1974	Appears in The Towering Inferno
1975	Begins Hertz Rent-A-Car campaign
1977	Meets Nicole Brown
1978	Divorces Maguerite Whitely
1978	Traded to San Francisco 49ers
1979	Daughter Aaren drowns in backyard swimming pool
1979	Retires from football
1985	Inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame
1985	Marries Nicole Brown
1989	Arrested for spousal battery
1992	Files for divorce from Brown
1994	Nicole Brown found murdered
1994	Arrested for murder
1995	Acquitted in criminal trial

Simpson would quickly gain his first taste of the adulation that he would enjoy throughout so much of his life. Simpson and Cowlings were named to the all-city team in high school and were their team's star players. Simpson, however, didn't have the grades to go on to a reputable school and instead played at City College of San Francisco. At City College, Simpson quickly garnered notice averaging 9.3 yards per carry and scoring fifty-four touchdowns. Of the fifty colleges that tried to recruit him after his sophomore year, Simpson chose the University of Southern California. He married his high school sweetheart, Maguerite Whitley, and continued his climb to stardom.

USC and Beyond

At USC, Simpson enjoyed the attention of the nation playing in a national championship game and setting college football records with his uncanny abilities and charming personality. "He's not only a wonderful football player, but he's a wonderful young man," said Norman Topping, then president of USC. Simpson won the Heisman Trophy in 1968 and quickly began signing endorsement deals and branching out into television. Before signing his first NFL contract, Simpson had already signed a three-year, $250,000, endorsement deal with Chevrolet. Before he played in his first NFL game, he had already made a guest appearance on the television drama, "Medical Center."

Simpson was drafted by the Buffalo Bills with the first pick of the draft. His first few years in the NFL would be rather uneventful. He was rarely used in his rookie season, gaining only 697 yards in 1969. The following year he was sidelined with a knee-injury. It wasn't until 1971, behind an offensive line named "The Electric Company" because "they turned on the Juice," that Simpson would show off his innate ability to elude defenders and consistently break the game with long yardage runs. He was effectively a one-man team, although he was always generously deferring credit to his teammates. "There were power runners and there were escape runners, but he was a slashing-type runner," recalled former Kansas City Chief coach Hank Stram. "He had tremendous vision and excellent balance and very good timing. He would always be gauging to get where he was going. He would start off like he was looking for a hold, and BANG!, he was gone. You could contain him and contain him, and then he'd go 75 yards for a touchdown."

The Record Books

At times his teammates seemed more interested in helping him achieve the personal accolades that became important to a Buffalo team that was never a championship contender during Simpson's stay. In 1973, Simpson became the first back to rush for over 2,000 yards, breaking Jim Brown 's single-season rushing record of 1,863. "O.J. gives credit where credit is due," said Joe Ferguson, the Bills' rookie quarterback, in Sports Illustrated. "He's helped me on the field and off. Nobody here is jealous of him. He hasn't got an enemy in the world. All of us wanted to see him get the yardage." Added offensive linemen Reggie McKenzie, "A record is a collective thing, anyway. I'm just thankful to be on the offensive line that broke Jim Brown's record." What made the record even more remarkable were the back to back 200 yard games that Simpson ran in the freezing cold and snow filled fields of New England and New York.

Acting and Endorsements

The following year Simpson made his acting debut in the film, The Towering Inferno. It marked the beginning of what would become a fairly successful career for an athlete turned actor. Simpson, to his credit, would never take his movie career as seriously as some of his contemporaries. "I'm a realist," he said in a Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service story. "Obviously, I'm not Dustin Hoffman. I have to play an athletic type, just as Woody Allen has to play a wimp type. No matter how many acting lessons I took, the public just wouldn't buy me as Othello." Nevertheless, Simpson continued to act throughout the years following his football career, most notably in The Naked Gun series.

Career Statistics

		Rushing				Receiving
Yr	Team	ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	REC	YDS	AVG	TD
Buffalo: Buffalo Bills; SF: San Francisco 49ers.
1969	Buffalo	181	697	3.9	2	30	343	11.4	3
1970	Buffalo	120	488	4.1	5	10	139	13.9	0
1971	Buffalo	183	742	4.1	5	21	162	7.7	0
1972	Buffalo	292	1251	4.3	6	27	198	7.3	0
1973	Buffalo	332	2003	6.0	12	6	70	11.7	0
1974	Buffalo	270	1125	4.2	3	15	189	12.6	1
1975	Buffalo	329	1817	5.5	16	28	426	15.2	7
1976	Buffalo	290	1503	5.2	8	22	259	11.8	1
1977	Buffalo	126	557	4.4	0	16	138	8.6	0
1978	SF	161	593	3.7	1	21	172	8.2	2
1979	SF	120	460	3.8	3	7	46	6.6	0
TOTAL		2404	11236	4.7	61	203	2142	10.6	14

Because of his natural charisma and an almost universal acceptance, Simpson continued to field endorsement

offers from numerous companies lured by his impeccable image. In 1975, Hertz Rent-A-Car made him the first African-American man hired for a major national corporate advertising campaign. The teaming would be wildly successful and continue long into his retirement from football. He would eventually endorse, among others, Royal Crown Cola, Schick, Foster Grant, Treesweet orange juice and Wilson Sporting Goods.

In 1978, Simpson was traded from the Buffalo Bills to the San Francisco 49ers. After an injury early in his first year there led to the discovering of a badly damaged knee, Simpson retired in 1979 the highest paid football player in the NFL with a salary of $806,688. He finished his career with 11,236 yards and six Pro Bowl appearances along with the numerous records and firsts.

It was also during the late seventies that Simpson's personal life began to change. In 1977, he moved to Brentwood, California with his wife and family. The struggling marriage, however, would officially end after the strain of their daughter's death in the family's swimming pool. Their divorce was finalized in 1979 and O.J. would soon move Nicole Brown, a young waitress he met in 1977, into his Brentwood estate. "She was 18," he said of Brown years later. "She was innocent. She was confident. She was, you know, a little kooky. But she was gorgeous. She was, I thought, the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. And she didn't know who I was, and I loved that." The two would eventually marry in 1985, the same year he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Simpson would continue a successful career in movies, product endorsements and as an analyst for "Monday Night Football." Unlike most athletes, Simpson was as recognizable after his playing days as he was during them. Unlike Jim Brown, who was considered a better actor and football player but had a rough and threatening public persona, Simpson's image had provided him with a relatively easy transition into retirement.

Murder and the Media

In 1989, Simpson was arrested for spousal battery after an incident on New Year's morning. Simpson's reputation, however, was unharmed and he received a relatively light sentence of probation, community service and fines. It marked the beginning, however, of an increasingly volatile period in his marriage that would culminate in 1994 when Nicole and friend Ronald Goldman were murdered outside her home, only a few miles away from Simpson's. His seemingly airtight alibi quickly began to unravel and after the LAPD announced their suspicions, Al Cowlings, Simpson's life long friend, led police on a 60-mile slow speed chase down the freeways of Los Angeles with a distraught Simpson in the backseat threatening suicide. The media obsession that followed the chase, viewed by 95 million Americans, was unprecedented and unstoppable. The trial that followed lasted until October 1995 and ended with Simpson's acquittal despite blood evidence that pointed to Simpson's guilt.

The country's obsession over his guilt or innocence became clearly divided along racial lines following the highly publicized acquittal. Simpson was seen as untouchable because of his celebrity and wealth. His "dream team" of defense lawyers were accused of playing to the country's racial prejudices and the LAPD was again painted as a racist police force that used Simpson as an opportunity to plant evidence on an extremely popular African-American. However, it became clear that Simpson's extremely lucrative career as a corporate pitchman was over. He had fallen out of the good graces of an increasingly divided and disbelieving American public. His many attempts to publicly declare his innocence fell largely on deaf ears. The civil trial that followed, in 1997, found Simpson liable and order him to pay $33.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

Awards and Accomplishments

1965	Named All-American collegiate football player
1967	Named Outstanding Player in the Rose Bowl
1968	Wins Walter Camp Memorial Trophy
1968	Wins Maxwell Memorial Trophy
1968	Wins Heisman Trophy
1970	Named Collegiate Player of the Decade by ABC
1970	Named to AFC All-star team
1972	Named Most Valuable Player in AFC
1973	Named NFL's Most Valuable Player
1973	Breaks single season rushing record
1973	Named Hickok Belt Professional Athlete of the Year
1979	Named NFL Player of the Decade by Pro Football Monthly
1983	Inducted into College Football Hall of Fame
1985	Inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame
1993	Inducted into Rose Bowl Hall of Fame
1994	Inducted into USC Hall of Fame

Where Is He Now?

Simpson moved to Florida and regained custody of the two young children he had with Nicole. He's had a few minor brushes with the law but has generally kept to himself. Playing golf and caring for his young children, Simpson continues to periodically defend his innocence and insist that he still has the public's support. Most recently, Simpson was fined $130 for speeding through a manatee zone in a powerboat near Miami.

The details of Simpson's private life paint a picture of a man painfully out of touch with reality. Although he had remained an extremely popular figure after his retirement, his charisma and "good guy" persona could no longer carry him in the aftermath of the trial. Simpson's prospects are slim. His gridiron glory is a tarnished memory and his future forever clouded by the events of the mid-nineties.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Books

Contemporary Black Biography, Vol. 15 Detroit: Gale Research, 1997.

St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.

Periodicals

"Jury Acquits O.J. Simpson in Road Rage Trial." Miami Herald (October 24, 2001).

"A Look Back at the Glory Days." Sports Illustrated (June 27, 1994): 32.

"O.J. Simpson: A Cultural Icon." Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service (June 17, 1994).

"O.J. in S. Florida to Rebuild Career." South Florida Business Journal (March 2, 2001): 29.

"O.J. Gets Custody of his Kids." Jet (August 28, 2000): 48.

"O.J. Goes On the Record." Newsweek (June 23, 1997): 43.

"Race and the Simpson Verdict." Commonwealth (November 3, 1995): 19.

"Simpson Had Incredible Staying Power as a Star." Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service (June 18, 1994).

"The Man with Two Faces." People (July 4, 1994): 32.

"The Run: A long Goodbye To O.J. Simpson." Los Angeles Magazine (August, 1994): 8.

"The Sad Legacy of 1995." U.S. News & World Report (January 15, 1996): 68.

"Whistling in the Dark: You May Think O. J. Simpson Killed his Wife. But Does That Mean You Can't Be Friends?" Esquire (February, 1998): 54.

Sketch by Aric Karpinski