Op-Ed: O.J Simpson Will Forever Be a Pariah

By: Zachary Draves

What a way to start off the day. Everyone is going about their business when all of sudden we got word that according to TMZ, O.J. Simpson passed away from cancer at the age of 76. 

His family put out an official statement on X/Twitter that read. 

“On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace. -The Simpson Family”

Suddenly it dawned on everyone that April 11, 2024, was going to be a long day. 

The former football star, movie actor, and of course the central figure in the Trial of the Century lived quite a life. It can already be said that his lasting legacy was that he went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and it was all his own doing. 

As hard as it is for some of a certain age to believe, there was a time when Orenthal James Simpson was one of the most beloved cultural figures in America. 

A black man from the Potrero Hill section of San Francisco, growing up in abject poverty and battling the debilitating condition rickets came of age to become one of the most transcendent athletes of his time. First at USC, where he won the Heisman Trophy, and then with the Buffalo Bills, where he rushed for over 2,000 yards in a single season in 1973. 

(Courtesy: Darryl Norenberg-USA TODAY Sports)

Along the way, he became a commercial juggernaut with groundbreaking endorsement deals with Hertz, General Motors, and RC Cola. He later became a ubiquitous actor with credits in 20 films including Capricorn One, The Towering Inferno, and most memorably as Detective Nordberg in the Naked Gun movies. Then he tried his hand at broadcasting with ABC and NBC. 

(Courtesy: Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY NETWORK)

He was held up as the exemplary black athlete who had tremendous crossover appeal and didn’t dip his toe into the treacherous waters of politics in the way that Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, and Curt Flood did. 

All of that changed on June 12, 1994, when his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman were found savagely murdered on the walkway of her home. 

What ensued was a media spectacle that was unlike anything seen before, then, or now. 

The infamous Bronco chase interrupted everything including Game 5 of the 1994 NBA Finals. The revelations that Simpson was a notorious domestic abuser during his marriage with Nicole. The trial itself ushered in the era of reality TV. Simpson trying on the bloody gloves. The players in the trial became household names. The accusations of racism against the LAPD and Detective Mark Fuhrman, who later perjured himself under oath when asked if he made racist statements that were later revealed in court on tape. 

(Courtesy: Richard Mackson-US PRESSWIRE)

All of which played out before the eyes of the world. 

(Courtesy: Vince Bucci/AFP/Getty Images)

Then the not guilty verdict shook everyone up and reflected a deep racial divide with black people cheering at what they thought was a major blow to a system historically riddled with discrimination and white people expressing sheer devastation that with all the evidence that was presented, he got off.

Despite all the sensationalism, the trial ended up bringing to the surface pertinent issues that were pertinent then and now: longstanding racism in the criminal justice system, the power of celebrity, and domestic violence. 

(Courtesy: Myung J. Chun/AFP/Getty Images)

In 1997, the Brown and Goldman families took him to civil court and found him liable for the murders. He was ordered to pay $33 million in damages. 

In the years that followed, Simpson would pop up in public every so often to try to recapture his once pristine image and would constantly reference that he was in search of the “real killer”.  

All this was happening while he was out playing golf, getting in trouble with the law on a few occasions, hosting the morally bankrupt You Got Juiced!, and writing the “pretend” If I Did It which provided graphic details that only the murderer of Ron and Nicole would know, and then in 2007 being arrested and later convicted for armed robbery in Las Vegas in connection with stolen sports memorabilia. 

(Courtesy: ISSAC BREKKEN-POOL/GETTY)

Simpson, after being granted parole in 2017, lived his life in virtual isolation with occasional and curious posts on X/Twitter. 

It goes without saying that O.J. Simpson at every turn made himself into a villain. 

No matter how anyone feels particularly about the trial or its outcome, he continuously conducted himself in such a way that it made it more and more convincing that he was probably a murderer. 

His unwillingness to take any accountability for his abuse towards Nicole and his complete disregard for her family and the Goldmans was plain to see. 

Sure he was a great football player, but that will forever be a footnote.

In a nutshell, this day can be easily summed up in a few short words put out by Ron Goldman’s father Fred, “no great loss”.