Ex-NFL Star O.J Simpson Dies Aged 76
Ex-NFL star O.J Simpson, who was sensationally acquitted in 1995 of murdering his former wife in what US media dubbed the “trial of the century”, has died at the age of 76.
His family said in a social media post on Thursday that he had died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer.
Nicknamed the Juice, Simpson was one of the best and most popular athletes of the late 1960’s and 1970’s. He overcame childhood infirmity to become an electrifying running back at the University of Southern California and won the Heisman Trophy as college football’s top player.
During nine seasons for the Buffalo Bills and two for the San Francisco 49ers, Simpson became one of the greatest ball carriers in NFL history. In 1973, he became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season. He retired in 1979.
After a record-setting career in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Simpson parlayed his football stardom into a career as a sportscaster, advertising pitchman and Hollywood actor in films including the “Naked Gun” series.
Simpson was found not guilty in the 1994 stabbing deaths of former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles, although he was found responsible for her death in a civil lawsuit.
Nicole Brown Simpson and Goldman were found fatally slashed in a bloody scene outside her Los Angeles home on June 12, 1994. Simpson quickly emerged as a suspect. He was ordered to surrender to police but five days after the killings, he fled in his white Ford Bronco with a former teammate – carrying his passport and a disguise.
A slow-speed chase through the Los Angeles area ended at Simpson’s mansion and he was later charged in the murders. Simpson later served nine years in a Nevada prison after being convicted in 2008 on 12 counts of armed robbery and kidnapping two sports memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel.
Reuters/Chidi Nwoke.
