Shortly after the family of O.J. Simpson confirmed that the Hall of Fame running back had died at the age of 76 following a battle with cancer, the Pro Football Hall of Fame and well-respected ESPN personality Jeremy Schaap addressed the news in vastly different ways.
As Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk noted, the Hall of Fame focused mostly on Simpson’s numerous on-the-field achievements that made him one of the greatest ball-carriers in the history of the sport.
“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,” Pro Football Hall of Fame president Jim Porter said for an official release. “His on-field contributions will be preserved in the Hall’s archives in Canton, Ohio.”
Schaap went in a much different direction and directly spoke about the horrific June 1994 murders of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. A criminal court jury controversially found O.J. Simpson not guilty of first-degree murder in 1995, but a civil trial jury later ordered Simpson to pay $33.5M to the families of Brown and Goldman.
“I think we have to keep in perspective here – yes, he was acquitted,” Schaap said about Simpson’s criminal case during a “SportsCenter” appearance, according to Kevin Harrish of Awful Announcing. “But anyone who has seriously looked at the evidence – anyone who saw Ezra Edelman’s brilliant film for ESPN about O.J. Simpson – would have to come to the conclusion that he was a murderer. And so, am I filled with sorrow today? I am not.”