O.J. Simpson has died at the age of 76, according to a statement on social mediafrom his family.
The former Heisman Trophy winner and running back for the Buffalo Bills made a name for himself in the 1960s and 1970s in the NFL and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.
But his glittering football career, and subsequent foray into acting and endorsements, was overshadowed by the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ron Goldman in her Brentwood, California, home in 1994.
Simpson was the prime suspect and had been scheduled to surrender to police on those charges but then tried to evade officers in a now-infamous white Ford Bronco. The low-speed chase took place on the 91 Freeway in the Los Angeles area and lasted for two hours, which was broadcast across television networks around the world.
Simpson went on trial in January of 1995, in an event dubbed the “trial of the century,” with his defense attorneys arguing their client was wrongly accused of the two deaths. During the trial, the defendant was asked by the prosecution to put on a pair of gloves believed to have been worn by the killer. The gloves did not appear to fit Simpson’s hands.
This led Johnnie Cochran, one of Simpson’s defense lawyers, to say the now-famous line: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.”
Simpson was acquitted in 1995 in a decision that divided the nation and has continued to engross the country and percolate pop culture decades later. In 2016, the documentary O.J.: Made in America won the Academy Award for best documentary, while an FX series, The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story, released in the same year and starring Cuba Gooding Jr., won eight Emmys and two Golden Globes.
