O.J. Simpson says a severe case of COVID-19 last year left him gasping for air and fearing his time had run out.
The football legend, who was famously acquitted in 1995 of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman, recounted his bout with the disease to sports website The Athletic in an interview posted online Friday, according to the New York Daily News.
“When I had COVID, I almost couldn’t get out of bed,” said Simpson, 74. “I made it to my balcony, trying to breathe. I couldn’t catch my breath.”
The NFL Hall of Famer and actor, who tweeted in February that he has been fully vaccinated, added that the medical scare caused him to discuss his final arrangements with his children.
“I felt vulnerable and for the first time thought I might be near the end,” Simpson told The Athletic. “Since that day, I have wondered. Do I want to be buried? Do I want to be cremated? Years ago, I would have left it up to Nicole because I know she would have done the right thing.”
Though Simpson was acquitted of double murder, he was held liable in a civil lawsuit. He later spent nearly a decade in a Nevada state prison after being convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping charges in 2008.
