O.J. Simpson

In 1989, Simpson was arrested for spousal battery after an incident on New Year's morning. Simpson's reputation, however, was unharmed and he received a relatively light sentence of probation, community service and fines. It marked the beginning, however, of an increasingly volatile period in his marriage that would culminate in 1994 when Nicole and friend Ronald Goldman were murdered outside her home, only a few miles away from Simpson's. His seemingly airtight alibi quickly began to unravel and after the LAPD announced their suspicions, Al Cowlings, Simpson's life long friend, led police on a 60-mile slow speed chase down the freeways of Los Angeles with a distraught Simpson in the backseat threatening suicide. The media obsession that followed the chase, viewed by 95 million Americans, was unprecedented and unstoppable. The trial that followed lasted until October 1995 and ended with Simpson's acquittal despite blood evidence that pointed to Simpson's guilt.

The country's obsession over his guilt or innocence became clearly divided along racial lines following the highly publicized acquittal. Simpson was seen as untouchable because of his celebrity and wealth. His "dream team" of defense lawyers were accused of playing to the country's racial prejudices and the LAPD was again painted as a racist police force that used Simpson as an opportunity to plant evidence on an extremely popular African-American. However, it became clear that Simpson's extremely lucrative career as a corporate pitchman was over. He had fallen out of the good graces of an increasingly divided and disbelieving American public. His many attempts to publicly declare his innocence fell largely on deaf ears. The civil trial that followed, in 1997, found Simpson liable and order him to pay $33.5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

The details of Simpson's private life paint a picture of a man painfully out of touch with reality. Although he had remained an extremely popular figure after his retirement, his charisma and "good guy" persona could no longer carry him in the aftermath of the trial. Simpson's prospects are slim. His gridiron glory is a tarnished memory and his future forever clouded by the events of the mid-nineties.