While O.J. Simpson’s life produced one of the most dramatic falls from grace in American history, his football career was something to behold, too, up until a disappointing homecoming with the San Francisco 49ers in the late 1970s.
His two seasons with the 49ers, in retrospect, are a mere blip in a polarizing life that had far more captivating chapters: charismatic actor, successful broadcaster, rental-car pitchman, and, for the past 30 years, suspected double-murderer, though a jury acquitted him of the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
Simpson’s death was announced Thursday by his family, stating he passed away a day earlier from prostate cancer. He was 76.
Just two months ago, Orenthal James Simpson harkened back to his San Francisco roots. He sat poolside in a Las Vegas backyard, donned a 49ers’ jersey, and predicted – wrongfully — they would beat the Kansas City Chiefs later that day in Super Bowl LVIII. It was his final 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!!! Lets go @49ers pic.twitter.com/MoO9TELc8B
— O.J. Simpson (@TheRealOJ32) February 11, 2024
For as much can be said about his life off the football field, the Bay Area gridiron is, indeed, where he made his initial mark, starting at Galileo High School and City College of San Francisco. “It was on those school yards and in those playgrounds that I was taught the principles of fair play and good sportsmanship,” Simpson said in his Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement speech.
After winning the 1968 Heisman Trophy at USC, Simpson embarked on an 11-year NFL career that earned him a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 1985. It was his 1969-77 tenure with the Buffalo Bills saw him become the 1973 NFL MVP and a five-time All-Pro, six-time Pro Bowler, and, four-time NFL rushing champion, including the first 2,000-yard season in 1973.
Those accolades, however, also enticed the 49ers to make one of the worst trades in franchise history. Instead of a triumphant homecoming, Simpson’s battle-worn knees did not cooperate as he suited up for the 1978-79 49ers amid a transition that Bill Walsh would eventually flip 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 choices. After 2,123 carries for 10,183 yards in nine seasons with the Bills, Simpson ran for just four touchdowns and 1,053 yards (281 carries) with the 49ers, who went 2-14 in both 1978 and ’79.
When Joe Montana arrived as a rookie quarterback on that 1979 team, he appreciated Simpson’s support and playful vibe, even though the running back’s decline was painfully evident. Consider these excerpts from Montana’s 1986 book “Audibles,” which he co-authored with Bob Raissman:
“It was really tough for me, and for everyone on the 49ers, to watch O.J. at the end of his career. He had always been someone I admired, through high school and college. It was really strange thinking that we were on the same team. It was like a dream.
“… During the ’79 season, O.J.’s knee were in terrible shape. His insticts were there. I could see it in games. All the moves were there. They were just a split second too late. Sometimes I would think how terrible I might feel knowing my mind could play the game but my body wouldn’t let me. When the backs, quartertbacks and receivers gather to watch the film of a game, it’s always a time for kidding and making fun of everybody else’s mistakes. No one is immune from the kidding. But one afternoon we were watching film and O.J., in this particular game, had been caught from a player who was a bout a half-step behind him. “Gentlemen,” O.J. said, “I wasn’t thinking about him. My instincts were still back in the seventies. In my own mind, I was by the guy, my mind told me that I could blow right past him. Look at the film; no one beats Father Time.”
“Everyone got really quiet. There wasn’t a man in that room who had not been touched by the greatness of O.J. Simpson. When we heard his explanation, it hit home, and it was scary. That is something every athlete has to go through. … During that first season, he provided everyone with a lot of laughs. We knew he was retiring, and as the season wound down he wasn’t playing that much because he was so banged up he could hardly run. In practice, he would sometimes go in motion the wrong way. Let’s face it, he didn’t really need to pick up all the new things Bill would install from week to week.”
Montana countered those deep thoughts by recalling how Simpson and teammate Al Cowlings helped liven up the locker room, even amid an 0-7 start to that 1979 season. (Cowlings would also become famous for driving Simpson in a notorious, low-speed police chase through Los Angeles after the 1994 murders of Simpson’s ex-wife and her friend.)
“O.J. never really ran faster than that Bronco could go, either,” former 49ers center Randy Cross quipped in a 2016 interview with this news organization.
Simpson’s farewell game saw him rush for 12 yards on two carries in a Dec. 16, 1979 loss at Atlanta. That was preceded by “O.J. Day” marking his San Francisco exit at Candlestick Park. In Simpson’s Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement speech, he thanks 49ers owner Eddie DeBartolo and Walsh for allowing him to play his final season with Cowings in their hometown.
Added Montana in his Audibles book: “O.J. had the ability to make people relax. He kidded everyone and they seemed to enjoy it. He is the kind of guy who also could be kidded. In fact, I think he got a lot of his material from pranks and jokes that had been played on him.”
Simpson’s body was too broken down for him to make an on-field impact for the hapless 49ers in 1978-79. His home debut featured his only 100-yard game (108 yards in a 16-13 loss to the Chicago Bears at Candlestick Park). He didn’t score in his final eight games in 1979.
Where his trade ranks in 49ers’ lore is up for debate, but it’s certainly among the dreadful deals that brought them quarterbacks Jim Plunkett in 1976 from the Patriots (for two 1976 first-round picks, plus 1977 first- and second-round picks) and Trey Lance (three first-round picks plus a third-round choice to the Miami Dolphins in a March 2021 trade).
His 49ers’ farewell did not block Simpson from becoming a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
“O.J. Simpson was the first player to reach a rushing mark many thought could not be attained in a 14-game season when he topped 2,000 yards,” said Jim Porter, president of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. “His on-field contributions will be preserved in the Hall’s archives in Canton, Ohio.”
Those 2,003 yards for the 1973 Bills included 200 on 34 carries in the season finale, thus breaking Jim Brown’s record (1,863 yards) that stood for a decade.
That also fulfilled a vow Simpson once made as a kid to Brown when they crossed paths in a donut shop after a Browns-49ers game at Kezar Stadium. “Hey, man, Jim Brown, someday I’m gonna break all your records,” a young Simpson told Brown, according to long-time 49ers photographer Michael Zagaris, who witnessed that exchange and wrote about it in his book “Field of Play,” which includes phenomenal pictures of Simpson from his brief 49ers career.
On Jan. 28, Simpson posted a Twitter/X video ahead of the 49ers-Lions faceoff in the NFC Championship Game — a rematch of their 1957 playoff game the Lions won at Kezar Stadium. Said Simpson: “It was 66 years ago, 1957, I attended my very first professional football game. That game was the 49ers vs. the Lions in what was a playoff game. I attended the game, I was not quite 10 years old at the time. It was a hell of a game. The 49ers were way ahead at halftime. The rumors were the 49ers opened the champagne bottyles at halftime, but as the second half rolled around, Detroit got hot and ended up winning that game. … Here we are again with the 49ers playing the Lions in a playoff game. Boy, it’s been quite a while. I’m excited.”
Back in those childhood days in Potrero HIll, Simpson was taught a lesson when he, Cowlings and others were caught by a coach ditching a class their sophom*ore year at Galileo. “I’ll never forget (junior varsity football coach) Jack McBride because he told me, he said, ‘O.J., in this world there are rules that we all must live by.’ He said, ‘You’ve gotta learn that if you’re ever going to be successful in this world, you are going to have to learn to accept the responsibilities for your actions.’
“And, I don’t know, it didn’t hit me right then,” Simpson continued in his speech, “but it started to grow on me as years went on because I knew I was this guy’s favorite and he turned me in, he would have turned me in anyway. And I guess that is when I began to realize that it really, really is secondary if you win or lose. It’s how you play the game in life and on the field that really matters.”
