What Was O.J. Simpson's Net Worth, Salary, and Career Earnings?
O.J. Simpson was an American football player, sports commentator and actor who has a net worth of $3 million. In a court filing during his 1992 divorce, O.J. Simpson estimated his net worth to be $10.8 million. That would ultimately prove to be Simpson's peak net worth, and FYI, being worth $10.8 million in 1992 is the same as being worth $25 million today. Around half of his net worth in 1992 came from the value of his Brentwood estate. He bought that estate in 1977 for $650,000 (roughly $3.5 million today). According to the settlement terms of their divorce, O.J.'s monthly income in 1992 was $55,000. That's the equivalent of $125,000 per month after adjusting for inflation, roughly $1.5 million per year today. The majority of that income came from his Hertz endorsement contract. To settle the divorce, O.J. agreed to pay Nicole $10,000 per month in child support plus a one-time payment of $433,750 ($1 million after adjusting for inflation). He also gave Nicole a rental property in San Francisco.
As you know, in 1995, Simpson was found criminally not guilty of the murder of Ron Goldman and his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson. He was not sued in civil court by Nicole's family in order to prevent her children from being forced to testify against their father. O.J. was sued in civil court by the family of Ronald Goldman, his other alleged victim. Simpson was ordered to pay the Goldman family $33.5 million in damages, roughly $65 million in today's dollars. Over the decades, that number has grown to just under $100 million today with interest. Roughly $500,000 was paid down through the sale of various assets and memorabilia. O.J. Simpson was a convicted criminal thanks to a robbery/kidnapping incident that took place in Las Vegas in 2007.
O.J.'s entire net worth was drained by his criminal trial. He continued to live in his Brentwood mansion until he was evicted in 1997 after defaulting on the mortgage. The 6,200-square-foot house was bought in foreclosure for $4 million and demolished in 1998. After being evicted, O.J. bought a home in Florida and soon declared bankruptcy. Crucially, he declared bankruptcy after moving to Florida, a state where your primary home can't be seized by bankruptcy. Furthermore, in the decades after his acquittal, O.J.'s primary source of income was a fully-funded NFL pension that was reportedly worth as much as $5 million and, when combined with other pensions, generated around $400,000 per year. State law protected this pension money from being claimed by the Goldman family. O.J. Simpson died on April 10, 2024, at the age of 76, after a battle with cancer.
Rockingham Mansion Foreclosure
As we stated previously, in 1977, O.J. paid $650,000 for a home located at 360 N. Rockingham in LA's Brentwood neighborhood. He was not the first celebrity occupant of the home. Immediately prior to his purchase, the home was being leased by then-married couple James Taylor and Carly Simon. O.J. and Nicole married at the home in 1985.
In July 1997, after Simpson failed to pay $86,000 worth of mortgage payments on his home, the estate was offered at a foreclosure auction. Bidding started at $1.875 million. At the end of a three-minute public auction, the winner was Hawthorne Savings, the same lender that held O.J.'s $2,531,259 mortgage. The bank's winning bid was $2,631,259, exactly $100,000 more than Simpson owed on the property. Only one other bidder participated in the auction.
O.J.'s former Brentwood mansion was 6,200 square feet and featured a tennis court, an Olympic-sized pool with waterfalls, and a large multi-unit guesthouse (which was famously occupied by Kato Kaelin at the time of the murders). In July 1998, the home was demolished, and a new mansion was built with a new address to keep tourists away. The new home was sold in November 2005 for $13.6 million.
In an effort to assert his innocence, O.J. gave a thorough tour of the Rockingham estate in 1996 following his acquittal. Here's the video tour:
In 2000, he paid $575,000 for a home in Miami. The home, which is located at 9450 SW 112th Street, was foreclosed on in 2012 after his daughter stopped making the mortgage payments. At the time, Simpson was imprisoned in Nevada. In 2014, this property sold at a foreclosure auction for $513,000. The home was razed in 2023, and in February 2024, the 1.6-acre lot was listed for sale for $2.4 million.
3 More Facts About O.J. Simpson's Net Worth
#1: According to one of his close associates, before he was ever arrested back in the '90s, O.J. had a pension investment account worth around $2 million. That money was managed passively over the last few decades of his life and the friend believed the current net asset value of the pension fund is between $2 and $5 million. He also had a small pension from the Screen Actor's Guild thanks to his various film and TV appearances. Fortunately for O.J., pension funds are fully protected from legal judgments and even bankruptcy, so amazingly, none of this money could ever be touched by the Goldman family. His various pensions reportedly generated around $400,000 per year in income for Simpson.
#2: Every penny Simpson earned outside of his pension money went straight to the Goldman family to help settle the $33.5 million outstanding civil judgment they have against him. In total, $500,000 of those damages were paid, much of which came from an auction of his personal items back in the 90s.
#3: Some believed that O.J. had millions of dollars hidden overseas in the Cayman Islands. The Goldman family believed this for years. To add fuel to the oversees money rumors, during the 2008 robbery trial that ultimately resulted in O.J. going to prison, one of the men who was being held at gunpoint by Simpson and his associates was overheard (on a secret recording device) saying:
"Nobody puts a gun in my face. I stood up for [him] while he was in jail. I stood up for him in the press. I stood up for him… on the stand. I helped him set up his offshore accounts."
Jeff Scheid – Pool/Getty Images
Early Life
O.J. Simpson was born Orenthal James Simpson on July 9, 1947, in San Francisco, California. He was raised there by Eunice, a hospital administrator, and Jimmy Lee Simpson, a chef and bank custodian. O.J.'s dad was a popular drag queen in the San Francisco Bay area who later in life announced he was gay and died of AIDS in 1986.
His parents separated in 1952, and after that, O.J. was raised by his mother. In his early teenage years, he joined the street gang The Persian Warriors and was briefly incarcerated at a juvenile detention center. A chance meeting with baseball star Willie Mays inspired Simpson to clean up his life and stay out of trouble. After graduating from Galileo High School, he attended community college before going to the University of Southern California on a football scholarship. At USC, he was a candidate for the Heisman Trophy as a junior, and won the award as a senior.
NFL Career
In 1969, Simpson was drafted as a number-one draft pick by the Buffalo Bills. He demanded what was at the time the largest contract in pro sports history: $650,000 for five years. This led to tension and a standoff with the Bills' owner Ralph Wilson. O.J. threatened to skip playing pro football altogether and become an actor. Eventually, Wilson agreed to Simpson's terms. He struggled in his first three years and averaged only 622 yards per season. Finally, in 1972, O.J. rushed over 1,000 yards for the first time in his pro career. In 1973, he became the first NFL player to rush for over two thousand yards in a single season. In 1975, he won the rushing title again, rushing 1,817 yards and scoring 16 touchdowns. Simpson's 1977 season was cut short due to an injury.
Before the 1978 season, Simpson was traded to the San Francisco 49ers, where he remained for two seasons. His final NFL game was on December 16, 1979 in a loss to the Atlanta Falcons. O.J.'s final play was a 10-yard run on 3rd and 10 for a first down. He played in six Pro Bowls and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985. In 2019, Simpson was named to the National Football League 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.
NFL Earnings
When he was drafted by the Bills in 1969, O.J. demanded a 5-year $650,000 contract. That's the same as around $5.5 million today after adjusting for inflation. After a brief standoff, he eventually received that deal. At the time, it was the largest contract in professional sports history. He would remain one of the league's highest-paid players throughout his career. Even in his final seasons, he was the #1 highest-paid player in the NFL. In the 1978 season, his league-leading salary was $733,668. The next season, his final in the NFL, O.J. earned $806,668. That's equal to $3.5 million in today's dollars. In 1979, the average NFL salary was $69,000, or $300,000 in today's dollars. Walter Payton was the league's second-highest-paid player, with a salary of $450,000 in 1979.
OJ Simpson poses with his Ferrari June 12, 1979 (Photo Paul Harris/Getty Images)
Nickname
Simpson got the nickname Juice as a play on O.J., the common abbreviation for orange juice. Juice is also a synonym for electricity, hence a powerful for a powerful entity. During O.J.'s career peak, the Bills' offensive line was nicknamed The Electric Company.
Entertainment Career
Simpson was also a successful actor, television producer, and commercial spokesman. Even before he retired from the NFL, he was already playing parts in TV and film. He appeared in films like "The Towering Inferno" (1974), "The Klansman" (1974), and "Capricorn One" (1978). Simpson starred in the "Naked Gun" comedy trilogy (1988-1994) as Detective Nordberg. He also appeared on various television projects, most notably 1977's "Roots." O.J. was considered by James Cameron to play the title character in "The Terminator" in 1984, but Cameron ultimately cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator while Simpson was not involved in the film.
In addition to his acting career, Simpson was an NFL commentator, most famously for "Monday Night Football." He worked for ABC from 1969 to 1977 and again from 1983 to 1986. From 1978 to 1982, he worked for NBC.
Endorsement Deals
Simpson signed an endorsement contract with Chevrolet that paid $250,000 per year before he joined the NFL in 1969. He would go on to endorse dozens of products and services. Some of his most notable endorsements were for TreeSweet Orange Juice, Pioneer Chicken, and HoneyBaked Ham. But his most famous deal was with rental car company Hertz. O.J. was Hertz's primary celebrity endorser from 1975 to 1992. His commercials where he was seen running through airports became iconic. Simpson earned millions from his Hertz endorsement, and even after he was downgraded as the primary endorser in 1992, he continued to earn $45,000 per month from the company to attend golf outings. In fact, on the night of the Brentwood murders, O.J. got on a plane to Chicago to play in a Hertz golf tournament. He was dropped from the company in the wake of his arrest.
Steve Marcus-Pool/Getty Images
Personal Life
At age 19, Simpson married Marguerite Whitley. They had three children together: Arnelle, Jason, and Aaren Simpson. In August 1979, Aaren tragically drowned in the family's swimming pool.
Simpson met nightclub waitress Nicole Brown in 1977. Simpson was still married to his first wife, but the two began dating. Simpson and Whitley divorced in March 1979. O.J. married Nicole in February 1985, and they had two children, Sydney and Justin. Their marriage lasted seven years. Simpson pleaded no contest to spousal abuse in 1989. Their divorce was finalized in 1992. They made an attempt at reconciliation in 1993 to no avail.
Murders of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman
In 1994, Simpson was charged with the murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ronald Goldman. They had been found stabbed to death outside Nicole's Brentwood condo on June 12, 1994. Simpson was immediately a person of interest in their murders but did not turn himself in. Five days later, on June 17th, he was the subject of a low-speed chase by police while riding as a passenger in the now-infamous white Ford Bronco driven by his friend Al Cowlings. TV stations interrupted the 1994 NBA finals to broadcast the chase live to an estimated 95 million viewers.
The arrest and trial of O.J. Simpson was one of the most publicized trials in American history. After 11 months, on October 3, 1995, the jury rendered a verdict of not guilty. An estimated 100 million people tuned in to watch the verdict announcement live. Simpson was subsequently convicted in a civil trial and was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to the Goldman and Brown families. At the time of his death, he had paid approximately $500,000 of those damages. With interest, the amount he owed grew to more than $40 million.
(Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
Nevada Arrest and Conviction
In 2007, O.J. Simpson was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, for his involvement in an armed robbery at a hotel room. Simpson and several associates allegedly confronted two sports memorabilia dealers, claiming that the items in their possession had been stolen from him. During the incident, guns were drawn, and the group left with the memorabilia.
Simpson was charged with multiple felonies, including armed robbery and kidnapping. On October 3, 2008, 13 years to the day after his criminal acquittal, O.J. was found guilty on all charges – robbery, kidnapping, coercion, and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison with the possibility of parole after nine years. Simpson served nine years before being released on parole in 2017.
In a 2013 hearing, O.J. testified that he deserved a new trial because he was merely trying to retrieve a few personal belongings that had no value. For example, a photograph of himself with former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, family photos from vacations, and his college All-American certificate. He argued that these were personal family belongings that were of no value to the Goldmans or the Browns and that he was merely attempting to retrieve them from a memorabilia dealer who had acquired them illegally. O.J.'s main claim was that he did not break into the room and that he personally did not carry or use a weapon in a threatening way. He claimed he thought he was acting in a 100% legal way and was totally unaware that anyone in his group had a gun. He claimed the dealers even acknowledged that the memorabilia belonged to him and that they acquired it illegally.
Immediately after the incident, O.J. actually went to the police and showed them the items he took to prove it was his personal property. Part of the problem is that someone in the group allegedly stole the memorabilia dealer's cellphone, which amounted to robbery. Another problem is that someone secretly recorded him during the confrontation, sounding very angry. On the recording, Simpson can be clearly heard saying:
"Don't let nobody out of this room. Motherf@#ker, you think you can steal my sh@! and sell it? Think you can steal my sh@!?"
An unidentified person also says:
"Backs to the wall. Walk your a$$ over there. You against the motherf@#ing wall!"
Pension Money
After he turned 55, O.J. was eligible to receive a pension from the NFL. It's widely believed that he actually held off on taking his pension payments until he was 65 so he could receive a larger monthly payment ($10,565 per month instead of $4,034). Assuming this is true, the NFL began paying him $10,565 per month starting in 2012.
When combined with his other pension income, O.J. reportedly earned as much as $400,000 per year.
Since he could not access or use this money while he was in prison, approximately $602,000 would have built up in his bank account. According to one of his close friends, O.J. also reportedly has a fully funded personal pension that is worth anywhere from $2-5 million, depending on how the assets were invested and performed. He also reportedly had a Screen Actor's Guild pension that paid around $1,700 per month. Pension income can not be touched by bankruptcy or legal judgment so it's completely off-limits to the Goldman family.
