OJ Simpson Has Died

(USNewsBreak.com) – The name OJ Simpson conjures many images: his many plays as a running back for the Buffalo Bills, the infamous chase in a white Ford Bronco on a Los Angeles freeway, a murder trial, and a supposed “tell-all” book. He became a staple in the news for decades. Now, he has passed away.

On Thursday, April 11, Simpson’s family confirmed in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that he had died of cancer. They said his “children and grandchildren” surrounded him as he passed. He was 76 years old.

In his younger years, Simpson had it all. He was a talented football star, arguably one of the greatest running backs of all time, who made millions playing a sport he loved and through various endorsements.

Tomorrow's cover: OJ Simpson dead at 76 after cancer battle https://t.co/F0jgbtCEUg pic.twitter.com/4ohXCROPoD

— New York Post (@nypost) April 11, 2024

He even appeared in a few movies at the height of his popularity. However, the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, followed by an infamous car chase forever memorialized in pictures and video, took OJ in a downward spiral from which he never fully recovered.

In 1994, prosecutors charged Simpson with the murders of his ex-wife and Goldman. Legal pundits considered the case the “trial of the century,” and more than 100 million people watched the proceedings. His legal team procured an acquittal of the crimes in 1995, but a civil jury found the star liable in a suit brought by the Goldman and Brown families in 1997.

A judge ordered Simpson to pay the families $33.5 million in damages. However, he was more than $114 million in debt to the Goldmans when he died. After the deaths, Simpson wrote a book called “If I Did It” about the murders and went into detail about the crime.

At the age of 61, following an armed confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers, a court convicted Simpson of armed robbery amid other felonies. He spent nine years in prison. The former football player obtained his release in 2017 but remained on parole until 2021. In the last few years, he was notably quiet.