Thankfully, O.J. Simpson Was One of a Kind

A few years ago, back when Twitter was a place where you could have debates with reasonable human beings, a discussion arose: Would any modern-day celebrity’s hypothetical murder case match the all-encompassing media circus that was the O.J. Simpson trial? There were a few possible candidates — the Rock was a popular one, and Tom Brady popped up a couple of times — but the obvious answer was no, there was no equivalent. There couldn’t be.

Part of the reason for this is the diffuse nature of modern culture, in which no single figure or event can command universal attention and obsession the way the Simpson spectacle did in the mid-’90s. But the primary reason is Simpson himself. The Hall of Fame running back/television personality/professional celebrity, who died of cancer on Wednesday at 76, was ubiquitous in American life for decades. His athletic brilliance (he somehow combined the quick-twitch running ability of Barry Sanders with the brute force of Jerome Bettis), along with his savvy, ahead-of-his-time knack for inhabiting the role of empty pitchman and spokesperson, into whom Americans could pour all their beliefs while not knowing anything about him at all (creating a blueprint for Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Tiger Woods and Shohei Ohtani to follow), allowed him to be a universally beloved figure during one of the most tumultuous eras in American history.

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