While OJ Simpson’s life produced one of the most spectacular rises and falls from grace in American history, his football career was also something to behold, until a disappointing return with the San Francisco 49ers in the end of the 1970s.
In retrospect, his two seasons with the 49ers are just one incident in a polarizing life that had far more compelling chapters: charismatic actor, successful entertainer, car rental pitchman and, for the past 30 years, suspected of being a double murderer, although a jury acquitted him of the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Simpson’s death was announced Thursday by his family, saying he had died a day earlier of prostate cancer. He was 76 years old.
Just two months ago, Orenthal James Simpson returned to his roots in San Francisco. He sat poolside in a Las Vegas backyard, put on a 49ers jersey and predicted — incorrectly — that they would beat the Kansas City Chiefs later that day in Super Bowl LVIII. It was his last video posted on his Twitter/X account, captioned: “I’m from the Bay and I’m going with the Bay!!! Let’s go @49ers.
I’m from the Bay and I’m going with Bay!!! Let’s go @49ers pic.twitter.com/MoO9TELc8B
– OJ Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) February 11, 2024
For as much as can be said about his life off the football field, it was indeed in the Bay Area where he made his first mark, starting at Galileo High School and San Francisco City College. After winning the Heisman Trophy in 1968 at USC, Simpson embarked on an 11-year NFL career that earned him a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 1985.
It was his tenure from 1969 to 1977 with the Buffalo Bills that saw him become the 1973 NFL MVP, a five-time All-Pro, a six-time Pro Bowler and a four-time NFL rushing champion, including first 2,000-yard season. 1973.
However, those accolades also prompted the 49ers to make one of the worst trades in franchise history. Instead of a triumphant return home, Simpson’s battle-worn knees failed to cooperate as he suited up for the 1978-79 49ers in the midst of a transition that Bill Walsh would ultimately transform into a Super Bowl-winning dynasty the following decade.
To get Simpson, however, then-49ers general manager Joe Thomas traded a high-end package of draft picks to the Buffalo Bills: 1978 second- and third-round picks; 1979 first, second and fourth round pick. After 2,123 carries for 10,183 yards in nine seasons with the Bills, Simpson managed just four touchdowns and 1,053 yards (281 carries) with the 49ers, who earned a 2-14 record in 1978 and 1979.
When Joe Montana arrived as a rookie quarterback on that 1979 team, he appreciated Simpson’s support and upbeat atmosphere, even though the running back’s decline was painfully obvious. Consider these excerpts from Montana’s 1986 book “Audibles,” which he co-wrote with Bob Raissman:
“It was really hard for me, and everyone at the 49ers, to watch OJ at the end of his career. He was always someone I looked up to, in high school and college. It was really strange to think we were on the same team. It was like a dream.
“…During the 1979 season, OJ’s knee was in dire condition. His instincts were there. I could see it in the games. All the movements were there. They were just a split second too late. Sometimes I thought about how bad I felt knowing that my mind could play the game but my body wouldn’t let me. When fullbacks, quarterbacks and receivers get together to watch game film, it’s always a time to joke around and make fun of each other’s mistakes. No one is safe from the joke. But one afternoon we were watching film and OJ, in this particular match, had been caught by a player who was half a step behind him. “Gentlemen,” said OJ, “I wasn’t thinking of him. My instincts were still in the seventies. In my mind I was next to the guy, my mind was telling me I could pass him. Watch the movie; no one beats Father Time.
“Everyone got really quiet. There wasn’t a man in that room who hadn’t been touched by the greatness of OJ Simpson. When we heard his explanation, it hit us and it was frightening. This is something every athlete has to go through. …During that first season, he made everyone laugh a lot. We knew he was retiring, and by the end of the season he wasn’t playing much because he was so banged up he could barely run. In practice, he sometimes went in the wrong direction. Let’s be real, he didn’t really need to pick up all the new things Bill was installing from week to week.
Montana countered those deep thoughts by recalling how Simpson and teammate Al Cowlings helped liven up the locker room, even in the midst of an 0-7 start to the 1979 season. (Cowlings would also become famous for leading Simpson on a notorious low-speed police chase through Los Angeles after the 1994 murders of Simpson’s ex-wife and her friend.)
“OJ never really ran faster than what Bronco could do, either,” joked former 49ers center Randy Cross in a 2016 interview with this news organization.
Simpson’s farewell game saw him rush for 12 yards on two carries in a December 16, 1979 loss at Atlanta. This was preceded by “OJ Day” marking his exit from San Francisco to Candlestick Park.
Montana added in his Audibles book: “OJ had the ability to relax people. He joked with everyone and they seemed to enjoy it. He’s the kind of guy you could make fun of, too. In fact, I think he got a lot of his material from the pranks and jokes that were played on him.
Simpson’s body was too broken down for him to make an impact on the field for the hapless 49ers in 1978-79. His home debut included his only 100-yard game (108 yards in a 16–13 loss to the Chicago Bears at Candlestick Park). He did not score in his last eight games in 1979.
Where his trade ranks in 49ers history is up for debate, but it was certainly part of the terrible deals that landed them quarterback Jim Plunkett in 1976 from the Patriots (for two 1976 first-round draft picks, plus 1977 first and second round picks). and Trey Lance (three first-round picks plus a third-round pick to the Miami Dolphins in a March 2021 trade).
His 49ers farewell didn’t stop Simpson from becoming a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
“OJ Simpson was the first player to achieve a rushing record that many thought was impossible to achieve in a 14-game season when he surpassed 2,000 yards,” said Jim Porter, president of the Football Hall of Fame. professional. “His field contributions will be preserved in the Hall archives in Canton, Ohio.”
Those 2,003 yards for the 1973 Bills included 200 on 34 carries in the season finale, breaking Jim Brown’s record (1,863 yards) that stood for a decade.
It also fulfilled a wish Simpson once made to Brown as a child when they crossed paths at a donut shop after a Browns-49ers game at Kezar Stadium. “Hey, man, Jim Brown, one day I’m going to break all your records,” a young Simpson told Brown, according to longtime 49ers photographer Michael Zagaris, who witnessed this exchange and wrote about it in his book “Field of Play”. ”, which includes phenomenal photos of Simpson from his brief career with the 49ers.
On January 28, Simpson posted a Twitter/X video before the 49ers-Lions faceoff in the NFC Championship Game – a rematch of their 1957 playoff game that the Lions won at Kezar Stadium. Simpson said: “It was 66 years ago, in 1957, that I attended my very first professional football game. This game pitted the 49ers against the Lions in what was a playoff game. I attended the match, I wasn’t quite 10 years old at the time. It was a hell of a game. The 49ers were well ahead at halftime. Rumors had it that the 49ers opened the champagne bottles at halftime, but as the second half wore on, Detroit heated up and ended up winning that game. … Here we are again with the 49ers taking on the Lions in a playoff game. Boy, it’s been a while. I’m excited.”
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