No. 32
USC
O.J. SIMPSON: PLAYER OF THE YEAR
With A Magnificent 2,003-Yard Rushing Season, An NFL Record, He Set A Standard Of Excellence And Earned A Place In Pro Football History
"There was O.J. Simpson, prone on the ground, hugging the ball with the Jets' Ralph Baker and John Little draped over him.
Juice had busted over left tackle, gaining six yards for the Buffalo Bills and with it a National Football League rushing record.
As he lay on the snow-spotting turf at Shea Stadium, Simpson heard the voice of Jim Braxton, another of Buffalo's running backs.
Braxton had helped block on the play that wiped Jim Brown's 10-year-old and seemingly insurmountable one-season rushing mark of 1,863 yards.
'That a big enough hole for ya,' shouted Braxton.
'Yeah, man,' answered Simpson. 'Not bad, not bad at all.'
Their dialogue took place during the first quarter of the final 1973 regular-season game, between the Bills and Jets.
It is repeated here because it serves as a reminder that great rushing records are not achieved by one man alone.
A runner- whether he be an O.J. Simpson, a Jim Brown or a Gale Sayers- needs offensive blockers to give him an opening, however slight.
In 1973, the offensive line at Buffalo, including people like Reggie McKenzie and Joe DeLamielleure, did a job for Simpson.
They made his climb to the mountain top easier.
Still, Orenthal James Simpson achieved something unique, something heroic, if you will, in 1973 when he amassed an astonishing total of 2,003 yards in rushing.
With that achievement and an appropriate bow to his blockers, Football Digest is happy to name O.J. Simpson as its 1973 Player of the Year.
A good deal has been written and spoken about the comparison between Simpson and Brown. But, in truth, O.J. is not the same type of runner that Brown was. Brown weighed about 232 and O.J. is a more svelte 212. Brown battered through tacklers; O.J. eludes them.
'I'm more the Gale Sayers type,' Simpson says. 'Brown did so many things with sheer strength that not even Larry Csonka can do.'
There are even some people who claim O.J. could not match Sayers in his prime, that he doesn't have the same ability to accelerate and change direction that Sayers had.
Maybe, in actuality, Simpson had combined the good points of both Brown and Sayers.
It amuses O.J. that some people, including a well known coach, still criticize his style of running. He readily admits he has no compulsion to run over defenders.
'I'm the eternal optimist,' he says. 'I always feel there is some way to go where I'm going to gain good yardage. To me that way is usually by juking people.
'Guys like Csonka and Larry Brown, they feel should run over people. I don't. I think I have to get as much as I can and the way to do that is to run around people rather than try to go through them.
'I admire slashing runners. I admired Ronnie Bull when he played for the Chicago Bears. But Bull had a couple of good seasons and then all the hard knocking took its toll.
'The runners I patterned myself after were Hugh McElhenny, the late Willie Gallimore and Sayers. I think I'm the sort of runner they were.'
Whatever assessment is made of O.J. as a runner, there is no denying he now owns the most glamorous record in pro football, and he showed his class that wintry day last December after the game with the Jets. With the press assembled in the Bills' dressing quarters after O.J. had been triumphantly carried off the field, Simpson said, 'I want to introduce the cats who did the job all year.' He then introduced each offensive lineman to the newsmen.
'I hope to stay in the league until these guys get old so no young running back can get behind them and break the record.'
There was a time not too long ago when Simpson was bogged down in a coaching system that rarely gave freedom to his considerable talents of running with a football.
In 1969 O.J. was the Bills' No. 1 draft choice. He had led the colleges in rushing while at Southern California in 1968 with 1,709 yards for a 4.8 average. He won the Heisman Trophy that year and when the last place Bills picked him, he came high.
But coach John Rauch didn't believe in building his team around one man, with the result that Simpson (he weighed less then) was consigned to some unfamiliar chores, like pass-blocking. Juice's rare talent for breaking open with a long gainer was never utilized as it should have been.
But O.J. got a break when Lou Saban returned to Buffalo in 1972. Saban immediately set about the task of building his attack around Simpson and acquiring more offensive blocking.
And now he can look down from the crest. 'I hope the record stands at least ten years,' Simpson says. 'But my goal in pro football is to be on a world championship team.'
'Then there could be nothing else I could ask for in pro football.'
'I won the Heisman Trophy, the rushing crown, but the Super Bowl is the ultimate goal. At Buffalo, we're dedicated to attaining that.' "
-John Kuenster, Editor, Football Digest (March 1974)
IS O.J. SIMPSON READY FOR THE 3,000 YARD DASH?
The Reasons Why The Greatest Running Back In The Game Could Successfully Achieve Such A Goal As Well As The Reasons Why He And The Rest Of The Buffalo Bills Don't Want Such A Goal
"Reggie McKenzie, O.J. Simpson's 'main man,' had just finished a workout on the weight machine in the bowels of Rich Stadium, new home of the Buffalo Bills.
He pondered the question as he peered into the spring sunshine.
'3,000 yards for the juice?' he said. 'It's possible. Anything's possible for the Juice.
'But I don't think it's going to happen this year. We really don't want it to happen, not even O.J. We have to be more diversified. We have to throw the ball more.
'I think something around 1,700 yards. Between 1,700 and 1,500 would be good. I think he would like that. And I wouldn't be surprised to see Jim Braxton get 1,000 yards, too.'
McKenzie's thinking reflects the new thinking of the Buffalo Bills, one of the surprise teams of the 1973 football season.
What '73 was, in terms of football, was 'the Year of the Juice.' Simpson moved mountains. He started with the biggest day a National League runner ever enjoyed, 250 yards, as the Bills blew the New England Patriots out of Schaefer Stadium. He carried 39 times while burrowing Kansas City into the ground in Buffalo's Monday night debut.
He exceeded 100 yards a record 11 times. He reached 200 yards a record three times. He arrived at nirvana for carriers of footballs, the 2,000-yard barrier, as he demolished Jim Brown's old one-season mark of 1,863.
But he was not a one-man team.
'My next goal,' he said, before the mud of Shea Stadium had caked on his uniform the record breaking day in Shea Stadium, 'OUR next goal ... is the Super Bowl.
'We're going to make it. We're good and we're young. We are the youngest team in pro football, 24.3 years average.
'Watch out for us.'
The rest of the Bills loved it. Not only because O.J. said it and it was his way of sharing the spotlight with them. But they loved it because they knew there was plenty of truth in it.
Just two seasons earlier, O.J. was in the depths of depression. He was being written off as just another big college star, another Heisman Trophy winner who couldn't make it big in the pros. The Bills had won only one game that year (1971). Their roster was full of two deadly commodities, dead wood and discontent.
'I wanted out, man,' he says. 'I wanted out so bad. I was convinced it was the best thing for me and the Bills. I was sure of it.
'I was especially sure of it for me. All I wanted to do was to get back into my swimming pool in Southern California and forget about the season.'
Simpson had hardly swum the length of his pool when the Bills made an announcement which would have a profound effect on his professional career. Almost from the day Lou Saban had announced his resignation as coach of the American League champion Bills in 1965, the team had headed downward. Not even the acquisition of O.J. could stop the tailspin.
The team's announcement, made two days before Christmas 1971, was that Saban would return as director of Buffalo's football fortunes. Simpson didn't realize it at the time, but his biggest Christmas present arrived at that press conference.
Saban was asked what he intended to do to put the Bills back on course. 'It's my philosophy that when you have a great runner, you give him the ball,' was his simple explanation.
It might have sounded simple, but it wasn't that plain for his predecessors. During O.J.'s first three years as a pro he was allowed to run with the ball no more than any ordinary back would. And as any defense that saw him the last two seasons will attest, Simpson is no ordinary back.
However, instructing the quarterback to call O.J.'s number was not the answer, and Saban knew it. The game films of the previous few years showed the coach what most fans in Buffalo already knew:
O.J. was seeing the type of holes for which no self-respecting moth would claim credit.
So Saban solved the problem the same way he built the Buffalo's championship teams of the mid-60s. He went after huge, mobile, speedy and skilled linemen. He used the draft and he made trades. And he didn't neglect the waiver wire.
Buffalo also had an unbelievably pliable defense upon his arrival, so he couldn't afford to ignore that problem. The Bills had the first pick in the entire draft courtesy of their horrific 1971 season. Saban used it to pick Walt Patulski, the giant Notre Dame defensive end.
But when Buffalo's second pick came up, the 27th selection of the draft, Saban couldn't believe his eyes. There on the board, live and unplucked, was the name of Reggie McKenzie, the tall and swift guard from Michigan. The Bills swept him up.
Last year Saban went into draft day armed with a bunch of extra picks, including two in the first round. He and his staff had just coached the North squad in the Senior Bowl in Mobile just a few weeks before, so he knew it was a vintage year for offensive linemen. He used both of his first-round picks on offensive linemen.
The A1 pick went for Paul Seymour, Michigan's enormous tackle. 1B was exchanged for Michigan State All-American guard Joe DeLamielleure.
Saban didn't it rest there. He made a multi-player trade with New England which brought him Mike Montler, whom he correctly gauged should be playing center instead of guard, where the Patriots had him stationed. Waivers had brought him Dave Foley, a one-time Jets' first-round pick whose pass-blocking had earned him a pink slip in New York. Donnie Green, an untutored 6-8 giant from Purdue, was a holdover from the old regime.
Then Saban tossed the material to Jim Ringo, the all-time great Green Bay center, and told him to make a line out of it.
By opening day last year DeLamielleure had earned a start opposite McKenzie at guard. A void was created at tight end when Jan White decided to retire during training camp. Saban thought it over and came up with a radical idea.
'Seymour is my tight end,' he said. 'He played it as a junior at Michigan. He may not catch many passes, but what I'm looking for is someone who can help O.J. turn the corner.'
Green was gaining polish. Bruce Jarvis had come back strong from a knee injury and won the center job. Foley was at home again. He was an Ohio Stater and knew how to block for the run.
And the run was the thing for Buffalo in 1973.
Saban benched veteran quarterback Dennis Shaw and handed the starting assignment to rookie Joe Ferguson. He promptly put the handcuffs on the former Arkansas star.
'Every time you get the urge to pass, turn around and look at No. 32 behind you,' the coach told Fergy.
It was sound advice. The Bills came out of the starting gate like a shot. They were 5-2 at mid-season. O.J. reached 1,000 yards in the seventh game, the upset victory over Kansas City in the Monday night special.
But then the Bills' limited offense caught up with them. First New Orleans scored a shutout, 13-0. Then Cincinnati nipped them at the buzzer, 16-13. Then Miami scored another shutout, 17-0.
The notion of a 3,000-yard season not being a good one probably dawned on the young Bills.
They rode their three-game losing streak into Baltimore with a slightly different game plan. It wasn't anything radical. It was just that Saban had loosened the handcuffs on Ferguson just a little bit and Jim Braxton, who had spent the first half of the season as a spectator because of back miseries, was now back in the lineup at fullback.
Ferguson threw the ball. Not a lot, just enough to keep the Colts off balance. And just enough to help produce a dramatic victory.
His last-minute touchdown pass to Bob Chandler tied the game and forced Baltimore's Marty Domres into trying a desperation pass in retaliation. Dwight Harrison intercepted and returned it for the winning touchdown.
'When Atlanta takes a look at Fergy's passing statistics it will give them something to think about,' predicted Mike Montler, who had replaced the injured Jarvis at center by then.
Something rattled the Falcons. They were at the crest of a seven-game winning streak when Buffalo came to town. Braxton, O.J., a fired-up defense and some loosening-them-up passes by Ferguson sank them, 17-6.
That was followed by tidal waves over New England and the Jets, a season-ending four-game winning streak.
Last winter Saban drafted a legitimate tight end, Oklahoma State's Reuben Gant, in the first round. If he can block as well as catch, Seymour can return to tackle. Braxton has been confirmed as one of the league's finest power runners. Saban traded Dennis Shaw to St. Louis for Ahmad Rashad (the former Bobby Moore), another top receiver to go with Chandler and J.D. Hill.
There can be fireworks in Buffalo in 1974 and you don't have to spell them 'O.J' alone.
'We're not even thinking about 3,000 yards,' chuckles McKenzie. 'We're thinking about somethin' else.' "
-Larry Felser, Pro Football Illustrated 1974
O.J.'s '74 ODESSEY: 2,000 AND ... ?
"Shea Stadium, December 16, 1973. The air is frigid and thick with snow. A crowd of 47,740 shivers in anticipation as O.J. Simpson prepares his rendezvous with pro football history.
The scene is a meaningless season-ending game between Buffalo and the New York Jets. But this day means everything to Simpson. He needs just 60 yards to surpass Jim Brown's 10-year-old record of 1,863 yards gained rushing in a single season.
The roar from the stands is tremendous as Simpson is introduced. Buffalo wins the toss and elects to receive, and on his second carry, Simpson goes 30 yards to become the 20th player to reach the 5,000-yard career plateau. But when the Bills' drive climaxes on a touchdown by fullback Jim Braxton, O.J. still needs four yards for the magic moment.
Buffalo forces the Jets to punt and the Bills take over on New York's 49. Simpson gathers in a handoff from rookie Joe Ferguson and darts left. A hole in the line has been opened by guard Joe DeLamielleure and O.J.'s 'bodyguard' Reggie McKenzie. Simpson bursts through the opening, then is met by several Jets.
The crowd hushes. Six yards! Brown's record has been shattered. So has Brown's 1961 mark of 305 rushing attempts. Referee Bob Frederic stops the game to ceremoniously award Simpson the ball. Fans shower the 27-year-old superstar with applause.
But O.J. isn't through. His sights are set on becoming the first 2,000-yard runner in NFL history.
With 5:56 remaining in the game, Simpson bursts seven yards over left guard and the impossible dream becomes a stunning reality.
It is a triumphant ending to an unbelievable season in which Simpson toppled seven NFL records and far exceeded the greatness predicted for him after a brilliant collegiate career at USC that left him with the 1968 Heisman Trophy and a reputation as the greatest back in the history of college football.
Simpson's first three years in the NFL were bitterly disappointing both to him and the rabid Buffalo fans. But he recaptured most of his greatness under new coach Lou Saban in 1972, and then put together a performance last season that simply defies belief.
Simpson wound up with 2,003 yards on 332 attempts, an average of nearly 24 rushes a game. His effort against the Jets was his second 200-yard game in succession and his third for the season, both records. Earlier in the season he had two other records by rushing for 250 yards against New England and carrying the ball 39 times against Kansas City. Mainly because of him, the Bills became pro football's first 3,000-yard rushing team.
And now, just as in those glorious days at USC, Orenthal James Simpson seems to have no peers among the running backs of the world. He is more than a record-breaker; he is an artist, a dancing, daring escape artist who transforms the act of carrying the football into a beautiful ballet.
'Cuts That Are Uncanny'
'O.J. senses tacklers,' says Houston linebacker and former teammate Dick Cunningham. 'He makes cuts that are uncanny. It's like the guy coming up behind is yelling, 'Here I come, you better go the other way.'
The sense of where he is what distinguishes him from other backs. Philadelphia Eagles coach Mike McCormack says he would like to have Simpson's eyes tested because he seems to sense tacklers he couldn't possibly see.
Simpson acknowledges that sensitivity. He always exposes his bare arms in short-sleeved jerseys because 'I can feel the tacklers better that way. I can feel their touch and in a football game I just don't want to be touched. The more I feel that way the better game I play.'
Simpson has 9.4 speed but pure speed is hardly the reason for his brilliance. He has the amazing ability to shift into high gear from a standstill, allegedly hitting top speed after two strides. Although intelligence plays a large part in his running (USC coach John McKay used to marvel at Simpson's ability to recall exactly the blockers and potential tacklers who figured in his long runs), O.J. places more emphasis, a 'feel' for daylight.
'I've often said that all the great runners have to be insane,' he has said. 'I mean, they can't be acting out of logic or thought. They get into a certain rhythm and make instinctive moves without any reason for them. Somebody once told me he once asked Pancho Gonzalez what foot he hit his backhand off- and Pancho had to think about it before he answered. It's that way with a back. I can't always tell you what I did to get into the end zone.'
Thinks Less, Reacts More
As further reinforcement that his talents are instinctive, Simpson says he is a better runner when he is tired because he thinks less and reacts more. His outstanding balance seems even more extraordinary because of his bowed legs. They were weakened when he had rickets as a boy. His mother couldn't afford professional care, so he wore his shoes on the wrong feet and used homemade braces. The legs seem skinny from the knees down, but from the knees up, they are thick and sturdy enough to carry his 210-pound frame.
But until Saban returned in 1972, Simpson's legs weren't working their magic in the NFL. The trouble began at Buffalo when Simpson's first coach, surly John Rauch, had the brilliant idea to turn Simpson into a blocker and pass catcher. Rauch was dismissed after two seasons, having alienated nearly everyone on the team, but his replacement, affable Harvey Johnson, was a front office man who couldn't coach.
It was no wonder that Simpson welcomed the return of Saban, who guided the Bills to two AFL championships in the mid-sixties.
'I started thinking less about leaving Buffalo and more about rebuilding with Saban,' Simpson says. 'Saban saved my career. He told me he'd give me the football and an offensive line, and he's sure kept his word.'
Building with Blocks
Saban proceeded to build an attack around O.J. He traded non-blocking wide receiver Haven Moses and moved Bob Chandler, O.J.'s teammate at USC, into his position. He drafted McKenzie out of Michigan in the second round and picked New York Jets tackle Dave Foley, a former No. 1 draft choice out of Ohio State, off the waiver wire. They joined two holdovers- center Bruce Jarvis and tackle Donnie Green- to give Buffalo the beginning of an offensive line. With two picks in last year's first round, Saban added tackle Paul Seymour and DeLamielleure.
'From Saban's very first day O.J. was our offense,' says Cunningham. 'In order to be a wide receiver, you had to be a blocker first and a wide receiver second.'
Saban began emphasizing drive blocking, in which the blocker takes the defensive man whichever way he wants to go and leaves the runner the option of going the other way, and installed the I-formation to give Simpson time and space to wait for holes to open.
Simpson has never lost sight of the fact that his blockers are crucial to his success. 'O.J. gives credit where credit is due,' says Ferguson. 'Nobody here is jealous of him. He doesn't have an enemy in the world. All of us wanted him to get the yardage.'
Most of the time, when Simpson takes off through a hole, McKenzie is in front of him. 'Reggie and I always have the option to go off tackle or slide to the outside- depending on where the traffic is,' says Simpson.
Notes McKenzie: 'The longer we play together, the more we feel what the other will do.'
Saban's system was the major factor behind Simpson's blossoming, but O.J. helped himself, too.'
Teammates as Best Friends
'After the 1971 season, I sat alone in my living room and did some deep thinking and I decided I'd just been kidding myself about running away from the situation. I used to think about how much more I'd like to be with my friends in Los Angeles and San Francisco. But your best friends should be the guys you play with. That's what football is about.
'The trip of being a football player is that when you're hot, you're really hot. When you're on top, everybody wants to be with you, the kids look up to you and listen to you, everything is fun. It was always that way for me at USC. Maybe it was too easy. When I wasn't on top anymore in Buffalo, I didn't feel like I was all the way down, but I did spend too much time blaming the coach or bad luck, and counting the weeks until I could get home to California.
'Now I can look back and see that it wasn't so simple. Some of the things that were happening were my own fault. I had to do some changing of my own. In a way, I had to grow up.' "
-Jeff Samuels, Gridiron News 1974 Pro Yearbook
O.J. was the League's Most Valuable Player in both AP and UPI balloting, AP Male Athlete of the Year, winner of the Hickock Belt as professional athlete of the year by the largest landslide in the history of the award, Maxwell Club of Philadelphia's Bert Bell trophy winner, Sporting News Man of the Year and recipient of the Dunlop Pro-Am prize as male athlete of the year.
He captured the NEA Jim Thorpe Memorial Trophy as NFL Player of the Year, was back and player of the year in the opinion of Pro Football Weekly and was cited for his 1973 NFL achievements by Mutual Broadcasting, the 101 Club of Kansas City, the New York Pro Football Writers Association, the Wisconsin Pro Football Writers, the 1000-yard foundation and Football Digest among others.
Simpson snapped Willie Ellison's record for yards gained rushing in a single game with 250 (on 29 carries) against New England at Foxboro on the opening Sunday of the regular season. His pace never slackened as he finished with 11 games of 100 or more yards rushing, three 200-plus outings and 2,003 yards on 332 attempts- all League records. He displaced Wray Carlton as Buffalo's all-time rushing leader and broke his own club marks for yardage gained and rushing attempts in a single season. Twelve touchdowns pushed his career totals to 30 rushing and 30 overall. O.J. presently ranks 16th on the NFL's list of all-time rushers with 5,181 yards.
O.J.'s highest single-game average was 10.0 (219 yards on 22 attempts) against New England at Orchard Park but he has never scored more than two touchdowns in a single game. His best efforts have been against New England, a team he has racked up for 946 yards and seven touchdowns in eight games. His 94-yard run against Pittsburgh on October 29, 1972, is a Buffalo record.
A unanimous choice for All-Pro and All-Conference two successive seasons, O.J. played in two straight Pro Bowl games. He was MVP in the 1973 Pro Bowl with 112 yards on 16 carries.
He reached the 1,000-yard level for the first time in 1972, leading the NFL with 1,251 yards on 292 trips. O.J. missed one game in his rookie season and sat out the final six games of 1970 with an injury but has played in 42 straight league outings since. He must also be feared as a pass receiver and option passer. Simpson was the first player picked in the 1969 pro draft.
Simpson was voted College Athlete of the Decade. A brilliant athlete for John McKay's USC Trojans, he destroyed 13 Southern California records in an abbreviated two-year varsity career. He gained 3,423 rushing yards for SC on 674 carries and established an NCAA rushing record in his senior season with 1,709 yards. O.J. averaged 164.4 yards per appearance in 19 regular-season games as a collegian.
O.J. carried a record 47 times (for 220 yards and three touchdowns) in SC's 1968 win over Stanford. He gained 299 yards in two Rose Bowl appearances. He more than doubled the vote of runner-up Leroy Keyes in the 1968 Heisman Trophy balloting and was a unanimous two-time All-America choice. Simpson ran sprints for the USC track team and was a member of SC's world record 440-yard relay team (38.6 seconds) in 1967.
Simpson attended the City College of San Francisco for two seasons before enrolling at Southern Cal. He rolled up 54 touchdowns and 2,445 rushing yards (on 259 carries) in junior college and was a two-time junior college All-American. He went to Galileo High School in his native San Francisco.
He majored in public administration as an undergraduate. He worked during the off-season as a weekend commentator on ABC-TV's Wide World of Sports. Simpson completed work on two motion pictures- 'The Klansman,' co-starring Richard Burton and Lee Marvin, and 'The Towering Inferno' with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen.
O.J. made numerous appearances on the banquet circuit and is honorary chairman of the 1974 Erie County (NY) Cancer Crusade and an active participant in many other public service projects. Baseball standout Ernie Banks is a second cousin. O.J.'s real name is Orenthal James and his hobbies include playing cards and tennis."
-Buffalo Bills 1974 Yearbook
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