It’s weird writing anything about O.J. Simpson, the Hall of Fame running back who died on Wednesday at the age of 76 after a brief battle with prostate cancer.

After all, Simpson most likely murdered two people–his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman–in the summer of 1994. And he was certainly a serial spousal abuser who spent years terrorizing Nicole Brown and his first wife, Arnelle L. Simpson.

That’s when he wasn’t a serial adulterer during both of his marriages, of course.

When you combine all of that with Simpson’s narcissistic ways and how he reportedly controlled and manipulated just about everyone in his life, how can that man’s legacy be all that complex?

He was scum. Would we call Simpson’s legacy complex if he was a lawyer, doctor, construction worker or bus driver?

No, but we would if he was a singer, comedian, politician or any other type of high-profile figure who people often idolize.

When you take a look at Simpson’s collegiate and professional career, there may have been nobody more decorated in the history of football.

After high school, Simpson attended hometown City College of San Francisco for two years, before enrolling at iconic USC in 1967. In two seasons, he rushed for a combined 3,423 yards and scored a whopping 36 touchdowns.

Simpson helped lead the Trojans to a national championship in 1967. His fourth-quarter, 64-yard touchdown run that helped to defeat rival UCLA not only proved to be pivotal along the way to the title but is considered one of the greatest runs in college football history.

Simpson won the prestigious Heisman Trophy in 1968 before becoming the most coveted prospect in the 1969 NFL Draft.

The Bills made Simpson the top pick in the draft, and he struggled to find his footing over his first three seasons. Buffalo was a downtrodden, sad-sack franchise, and Simpson had trouble being its everything.

That all changed when Simpson rushed for 1,251 yards in 1972. One year later, Simpson turned in perhaps the greatest season for a running back in NFL history when he became the first player to rush for 2,000 yards. It was 2,003, to be exact, as Simpson averaged 143.1 yards per game over 14 weeks. That’s right, there were only 14 regular-season games back then. Therefore, if you averaged that out over the current 17-game season, Simpson would have gained 2,432 yards. Even if you went by the 16-game schedule that Eric Dickerson used to set the single-season record when he rushed for 2,105 yards with the Rams in 1984, Simpson’s ’73 pace would have netted 2,289 yards.

Needless to say, Simpson was voted the NFL MVP in 1973.

Simpson rushed for a combined 7,699 yards between 1972 and 1976 before age and injuries began to take their toll.

Simpson was traded to his hometown 49ers prior to the 1978 campaign. He played two years in San Francisco before retiring following the 1979 season.

Simpson retired as the second-leading rusher in NFL history with 11,236 yards. He played in five Pro Bowls and he was named a First-Team All-Pro five times. He was a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee in 1985. He was voted to the NFL 1970s All-Decade Team. He was a part of the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team and the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

Simpson was arguably the most gifted athlete to ever play running back, and to watch him was to witness poetry in motion combined with brute force. Listed at 6-1 and 212 pounds, Simpson was blessed with size and sprinter’s speed, and he often utilized both of those attributes to devastate opposing defenses.

As per his Wikipedia Page, Simpson, possessing Hollywood good looks and a charming on-screen persona, began acting during his college career and continued to do so as an NFL player. His acting credits would rival some of the most serious thespians, and he even had a role in the 1977 groundbreaking mini-series, Roots. 

Simpson hosted Saturday Night Live in 1978 and started his own production company upon his retirement in 1979.

Simpson continued to act in the 1980s and also joined the Monday Night Football team for a few years before becoming part of the NFL on NBC crew.

Simpson starred in numerous commercials, with the most famous being those Hertz ads that often showed him running through airports. 

Perhaps, Simpson’s most noteworthy media/acting role occurred when he was cast as Detective Nordberg in the 1988 comedy, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! 

Starring alongside the iconic Leslie Nielsen, Simpson was the butt of the joke in every scene in what would ultimately become a film trilogy, with the third installment being released in 1994.

1994: That’s when the public perception of Simpson changed forever.

Putting it into the context of today, imagine Peyton Manning, a legendary college and pro football player from the late-’90s through the mid-2010s who has gone on to become his own media brand following his career, being charged with double murder–including his wife. Imagine Manning going on trial and having prosecutors spend months portraying him as an adulterer and a possessive spousal abuser.

Who could possibly predict that, right?

Like Manning is today, Simpson was seen as the ultimate American success story in the 1990s.

That’s why it was so surreal when it was first reported that Simpson was being charged with double murder in June of 1994. That’s why there were audible gasps when the Los Angeles Police Department announced that Simpson was a fugitive. That’s why everyone was glued to their television sets on the night of June 17, 1994, when Simpson sat in the backseat of a white Ford Bronco, with gun in hand, as his friend, A.C. Cowlings, led police on a slow-speed chase along the Los Angeles freeway.

And that’s why America stayed glued to its collective television sets over the next year-plus, as the Simpson saga was dubbed the Trial of the Century and was watched live by millions upon millions of people every week for months.

It was during this time that O.J. Simpson’s true character was revealed. It was clear, simply from the number of times that police had to be called to his estate for domestic disturbances during his marriage to Nicole Brown (and even after), that he was far from the good guy that everyone knew him to be.

On the surface, the evidence against Simpson, both circumstantial and forensic, was overwhelming. But Simpson was obviously a wealthy man, which meant he could hire the best team of lawyers that money could buy–and he did. This group of lawyers, nicknamed the Dream Team, was led by Johnnie Cochran and Robert Shapiro.

Simpson’s lawyers slowly picked the prosecutors’ seemingly strong case apart by famously highlighting the LAPD’s notorious reputation for corruption, racism and brutality against minorities.

That, plus the department’s shaky handling of the DNA evidence, was enough to convince the jury of reasonable doubt.

The public reaction to the jury’s decision in October of 1995–not guilty on two counts of first-degree murder–divided the nation by race, as black people celebrated, while white people seethed.

Simpson was later sued by the families of Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown and was found to be liable for their deaths.

Despite not going to prison for double murder, Simpson spent his ensuing years estranged from a public that once adored him. Few and far between were the public appearances, as he went from being an icon to a pariah.

In 2008, Simpson went on trial for, among other things, kidnapping and armed robbery for an incident in Las Vegas where he reportedly tried to reclaim items he said were stolen from him.

Simpson was found guilty and sentenced to 33 years in prison. He spent nine years in jail before being paroled in 2017.

Simpson again spent his ensuing years on the fringes of the public spotlight until his death on April 10, 2024.

A jury may have found Simpson not guilty of double homicide in 1995, but a country that once made him a football and media darling never let him off the hook for the overwhelming evidence that his Dream Team so expertly manipulated a jury into overlooking.

The public is often cautioned about meeting its heroes because the real person is sometimes drastically different than their public persona.

O.J. Simpson epitomized that sentiment more than any celebrity in the history of American pop culture.