Thursday, December 16, 2021
Career ends before the fall
When OJ Simpson didn’t chase helicopters
Long before OJ Simpson is chased down the highway live on TV and much longer before he goes to jail for an armed robbery, he is a gifted professional football player and MVP of the NFL. That career ended 42 years ago today.
The global public knows OJ Simpson as the man who chased through the streets in a white Ford Bronco, followed by 20 police cars in formation, filmed from a helicopter, from which the images from Beverly Hills were broadcast live to the US living rooms. It all happened in 1994, 15 years after he left the sport.
Orenthal James Simpson, now 74, was a gifted professional footballer. On December 16, 1979, the running back completed his last NFL game for the San Francisco 49ers – after 13,378 yards of space and 61 touchdowns in main round games and a 21:31 at the Atlanta Falcons was over.
“The Juice” never won the Super Bowl, but in 1968 he was awarded the Heisman Trophy as the best college player and in 1973 even as the most valuable player (MVP) of the NFL. In 1985 he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, by which time the Californian had long since switched to the acting profession.
The chase was a TV event during the 1994 World Cup in the United States.
(Photo: picture alliance / AP Photo)
In all three parts of the hilarious film series “The Naked Cannon” he played Detective Nordberg, who was pursued by misfortune. In the year when the last part “33 1/3” came out, Simpson switched sides. The police arrested him after the spectacular car chase. Simpson was charged with the alleged murder of his ex-wife and her companion.
Simpson was acquitted in the circumstantial trial, despite considerable doubts about his innocence – but later ended up in prison. In 2008, the fallen sports hero was sentenced to 33 years in prison for armed robbery in a Las Vegas hotel. In 2017 he left the Lovelock Correctional Center early on parole.
This Tuesday he was released from the state of Nevada for good conduct and is now officially a free man again. Simpson had lived under government supervision in Las Vegas since the end of his imprisonment.