NFL legend OJ Simpson looked unrecognizable as he staggered through the streets of Las Vegas on Monday.
Simpson seemed a far cry from his playing days when the frail 76-year-old was spotted in Sin City.
The former running back walked with a slight limp and was hunched over, wearing a gray polo shirt and matching track jacket and sweatpants.
The ex-con held what appeared to be an iPad under his arm as he left his black SUV in a parking lot and stumbled along a bit before picking up the pace.
Simpson, who played for the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers, reportedly had trouble walking and used a cane in jail on charges of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, assault, robbery and use of a deadly weapon.
OJ Simpson looked unrecognizable as he staggered through the streets of Las Vegas
The NFL legend appeared weak as he limped slightly while out and about in Sin City
The 76-year-old clutched what appeared to be an iPad under one arm as he left his car
Simpson’s knee injuries are the result of his 11-year career as a running back in the NFL, and although he had two surgeries on his left knee in the late 1970s, it appears he is still in some pain.
These injuries had such an impact on his health. Simpson’s attorney, Johnnie Cochran, Jr., used his disability in his 1994 murder trial to convince the jury that his knee was so weak that he was physically unable to kill his ex-wife, Nicole Brown. Simpson and her boyfriend Ron Goldman.
At one point, Cochran instructed Simpson to stand up and raise the pant leg of his suit to show the jury his multiple scars on his left knee to prove he was severely disabled.
Prosecutors in the trial also didn’t know he had been taking arthritis medication before they asked him to try on the famously ill-fitting gloves, former Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti alleged in 2016.
Simpson was acquitted of the murders of Brown and Goldman 28 years ago in the ‘Trial of the Century’.
His acquittal came nine months after the highly publicized trial began in 1995, and about 16 months after Simpson and Goldman were found brutally murdered outside the former’s Los Angeles home.
Simpson’s trial and eventual acquittal of the murders were televised for the world to see, although despite walking away a free man in 1995, he was later forced to pay out $33.5 million in damages to the Brown and Goldman after he was found. responsible for the deaths in the civil court.
The former Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers running back also faced more legal trouble when he was sentenced to nine to 33 years behind bars in 2008 for an armed robbery in Nevada.
Simpson was dressed in a gray polo shirt and a matching track jacket and sweatpants
The former Bills and 49ers running back stumbled along a bit before picking up the pace
After serving nine of those years, he was released on parole in 2017.
In August, Simpson made headlines when he hit the sentence handed down against former NFL player Henry Ruggs compared to his own prison for armed robbery.
He said he was surprised when Ruggs, 24, was given a three- to 10-year prison sentence despite causing the death of a 23-year-old woman after driving down a strip at more than 155 mph in November 2021 drove in Las Vegas.
“The calculations just don’t add up,” said Simpson, who spent nine years behind bars after trying to steal sports memorabilia from a Las Vegas hotel room with a gun in September 2007.
“I know I went to college on a football scholarship, but somehow this math doesn’t add up,” he added.
Simpson wasn’t the only one who believed Ruggs may have gotten off lightly for his role in the November 2021 crash that killed 23-year-old Tina Tintor and her dog.
At one time, the former Las Vegas Raiders star could have spent 50 years behind bars, but in May he reached a plea deal to plead guilty to one felony count of driving under the influence.
Simpson was acquitted of the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in a famous trial that played out on television around the world
Simpson made headlines in August when he compared the sentence imposed on former NFL player Henry Ruggs to his own prison sentence for armed robbery
Hours after the verdict was read in the same courthouse where he was convicted fourteen years ago, Simpson shared his thoughts on the legal proceedings with his 900,000 followers on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“You drive a car at like 160 miles per hour on a public road and end up killing a girl and her dog and you get three to 10 years?” Simpson said, pointing out Ruggs’ crime.
Comparing it to his own arrest, he said, “You go to a hotel room, which you were invited to, to retrieve your own personal stolen property – property that I now have because the state of California ruled it was mine – and you gets nine to 33 years?’
“Same courthouse, same city, same state. Don’t know. Somehow it just doesn’t make sense to me…I’m just saying,” he finished.