How OJ Simpson became the star witness in a pivotal 1970 trial over helmet safety – and set back CTE research for decades 

In March 1970, OJ Simpson served as a witness in a landmark court case brought by the family of a paralyzed football player against a major helmet maker. His adroit performance on the stand, experts say, helped the NFL shrug off the dangers of CTE for decades.

Two years after winning the Heisman Trophy at USC and a year after becoming the first-round draft pick for the Buffalo Bills, Simpson was tapped by the legal defense team of Rawlings Sporting Goods.

The equipment maker had been slapped with a $3.6 million lawsuit – the first of its kind to reach a jury – by the family of Ernie Pelton. The former running back at Sacramento, Calif.’s Rio Linda High School had been paralyzed from the neck down after a helmet-to-helmet hit in 1967.

Simpson – already a local hero at the time around his hometown of San Francisco before becoming a national celebrity – charmed a star-struck jury as he defended the plastic helmets produced by Rawlings, according to the Sacramento Bee.

“I believe in this helmet,” Simpson, who wore a Rawlings helmet as a running back for the Bills, testified in Sacramento County Superior Court, according to the newspaper.

“I know every time I get on the field, there’s a chance I get hurt.”