It’s unclear how much he may have earned for participating in All-Pro Football 2K8 – 2K Sports isn’t commenting on how much Simpson was compensated. Whatever the amount was, it looks like that money will be headed to the Goldman family, which has been doggedly pursuing Simpson’s estate ever since they won a $33.5 million judgment against Simpson regarding the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman; while Simpson was acquitted of murder charges in 1995 during “the trial of the century,” he was later found guilty in a wrongful death lawsuit.

Simpson has apparently been trying to seek additional sources of income in recent years as his fortune has been depleted. Last year, the notorious book “If I Did It,” which was Simpson’s fictionalized, hypothetical of how he would have murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman, was cancelled after controversial erupted over Simpson’s supposed “confession.” Simpson was reportedly set to earn $1 million for his participation in the book, but the Goldman family won another legal victory against the accused murderer and secured the rights to the unpublished book and any money Simpson may have earned for writing it (actually, the book was ghost written by Hollywood screenwriter Pablo Fenjves, who’s written nothing that you have ever heard of). Though the book was cancelled, transcripts of “If I Did It” can be easily found on the Web.

As for 2K Sports, this marks more bad press for its parent company Take-Two Interactive. While Simpson, a Hall of Fame running back, is a no-brainer for a football game that features the best NFL players of all time, one minor detail about the game is a little unsettling considering Simpson’s past. In All-Pro Football 2K8, players can choose their team names and build their rosters. Unfortunately, one of the team names is the New Jersey Assassins, and the mascot is a hooded figure holding a bloody knife. Oh, and they play at the fictional DiMeo Stadium, which is named after the DiMeo crime family in “The Sopranos.”

Woops. I’d prefer to think of this as a minor oversight by the folks at 2K Sports rather than a deliberate attempt to stir up controversy and get publicity for the new game, which competes with the monster-selling Madden NFL series. Take-Two Interactive gets a lot of criticism, and some of it’s deserved, but a lot of it is unwarranted. Ican't fault the company for having Simpson in the game, though the Assassins mascot is in poor taste even if Simpson wasn't a selectable player in All-Por Football 2K8. I’d also prefer to think that most people playing the game, which was released last month, wouldn’t find any humor in watching Simpson run in a touchdown for the Assassins and spike the ball near a mascot with a bloody knife. At least, that’s what I prefer to think. Reality may be entirely different.