Episode 2536
O. J. Simpson
Fri, 2024-Apr-12 03:03 UTC
Length - 3:28
Direct Link
Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a popular Wikipedia page every day.
With 2,368,368 views on Thursday, 11 April 2024 our article of the day is O. J. Simpson.
Orenthal James Simpson (July 9, 1947 – April 10, 2024) was an American football player, actor, and broadcaster. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons, primarily with the Buffalo Bills, and is regarded as one of the greatest running backs of all time. Once a popular figure with the American public, his professional success was later overshadowed by his trial and controversial acquittal for the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994.
Simpson played college football for the USC Trojans, where he won the Heisman Trophy as a senior, and was selected first overall by the Bills in the 1969 NFL/AFL draft. During his nine seasons with the Bills, he received five consecutive Pro Bowl and first-team All-Pro selections from 1972 to 1976. He also led the league in rushing yards four times, in rushing touchdowns twice, and in points scored in 1975. In 1973, he became the first NFL player to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season, earning him NFL Most Valuable Player (MVP), and is the only NFL player to do so in a 14-game regular season. He holds the record for the single-season yards-per-game average at 143.1. After retiring with the San Francisco 49ers in 1979, he pursued an acting and broadcasting career. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985.
In June 1994, Simpson was arrested and charged with the murders of Brown and Goldman. He was acquitted in a lengthy and internationally publicized trial, but found liable for the deaths three years later in a civil suit from the victims' families. He paid little of the $33.5 million judgment.
In 2007, Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, and charged with armed robbery and kidnapping. In 2008, he was convicted and sentenced to 33 years' imprisonment, with a minimum of nine years without parole. He served his sentence at the Lovelock Correctional Center in rural Nevada. He was granted parole in July 2017, released from prison in October, and granted early release from his parole in December 2021 by the Nevada Division of Parole and Probation. He died from prostate cancer on April 10, 2024, at the age of 76.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 03:03 UTC on Friday, 12 April 2024.
For the full current version of the article, see O. J. Simpson on Wikipedia.
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Until next time, I'm Emma Standard.
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