Pro Football Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer, his family announced on his X account. Simpson was 76 years old.
“He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren,” Thursday’s post read. “During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace.”
Simpson was diagnosed with prostate cancer recently, according to Local 10 News.
In May 2023, Simpson mentioned in an X/Twitter video that he “caught cancer,” though he did not say what kind. At that time, he said he was “healthy now” and “it looks like I beat it.” He admitted he had “to do the whole chemo thing” and that he had COVID and cancer at the same time.
According to TMZ, Simpson had been in hospice care over the past few months. Simpson’s attorney confirmed his death to TMZ.
Despite a decorated NFL career as a running back that included six Pro Bowls, an MVP award, 13,378 career yards from scrimmage and 75 career touchdowns, Simpson is most widely known for being a murder suspect in the stabbing death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. In “The Trial of the Century,” Simpson was acquitted of the crime.
Represented by a legal “Dream Team” that included Johnnie Cochran Jr. and F. Lee Bailey, he was acquitted by a jury in 1995 in a verdict that split the country along racial lines, with many white Americans believing he got away with murder and many black people considering him innocent.
Live TV coverage of his arrest after a famous slow-speed chase marked a stunning fall from grace for the sports hero.
A separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to family members of Brown and Goldman.
After a 2007 incident, the then-61-year-old served nine years in prison for robbery and kidnapping over an attempt to steal back some of his sports memorabilia from a Las Vegas hotel room. Simpson insisted his conviction and sentence were unfair but said: “I believe in the legal system and I honored it. I served my time.” In 2017, he was released on parole, which ended in 2021.
Simpson played nine seasons for the Buffalo Bills after being taken with the No. 1 overall pick in 1969 and ended his career with the San Francisco 49ers, where he played for two seasons. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1968 for USC.
The Associated Press contributed to this report