In announcing O.J. Simpson’s cremation, attorney Malcolm LaVergne emphatically denied that any part of his client’s body would be donated to medical science. Specifically, he pushed back on any idea of Simpson’s brain being studied. “With O.J. everything’s wild, but I’ve been getting calls from medical centers that are doing CTE testing asking me for OJ’s brain…that is not happening,” he told the New York Post. “I may consult with the children on it, but I haven’t heard anything about it, so it’s just not going to happen.”
CTE refers to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain disorder believed to be caused by repeated head injuries that can cause significant cognitive impairment (per the Mayo Clinic). The condition has increasingly been seen as a major risk of professional football; one study by Boston University found that 92% of former NFL players investigated had CTE, compared to less than 1 percent of non-NFL brains from another study. The extent of the risk, and what compensation injured players might be owed, have become contentious issues within football.
Whether Simpson had CTE will never be known if his brain is cremated; the disease can’t be confirmed without an autopsy. But there were anecdotal claims by a prison guard that, while serving nine years for kidnapping and armed robbery, Simpson was delusional and forgetful. A former manager added that Simpson often argued with himself, and a friend claimed that Simpson had frequent, debilitating headaches. Simpson himself once expressed concerns that he may have developed CTE.
