CLOSE If the hearing goes as expected, Simpson would be eligible to leave prison on Oct. 1. USA TODAY Sports 
 
 O.J. Simpson could be released from prison as soon as Oct. 1 if he is granted parole on Thursday. (Photo: Ethan Miller, AP) 
 
 When O.J. Simpson leaves prison for the first time in almost a decade, possibly as early as Oct. 1, he will no doubt have a list of things he wants to do. 
 
 See his children. Reconnect with old friends. Play golf. Figure out why people are making themselves look like dogs, mice and pieces of bread in photos on smart phones that will disappear in 24 hours. Figure out why anyone would take a photo only to have it disappear in 24 hours, for that matter. 
 
 Actually, that last bit might be instructive. 
 
 RELATED: 
 
 Simpson’s release from prison – his parole hearing in Nevada on Thursday is considered something of a formality – will produce a spectacle unlike anything we’ve seen since he went behind bars. He’s been a national obsession for the better part of a quarter-century now, these past nine years the closest there’s been to a respite, and his release from prison will only renew the rabid curiosity. 
 
 Has his time behind bars changed him? Does Simpson, who turned 70 on July 9, look different? Is he repentant? Humbled? What does he have to say now about the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman? 
 
 It might be tempting, both financially and psychologically, to indulge the hype. A few months back, there was even speculation he could land a reality TV show. 
 
 It also would be the worst possible thing he could do. 
 
 Instead of courting the spotlight, Simpson needs to disappear. Walk out of prison, head straight for an SUV with tinted windows – definitely not a white Ford Bronco – and vanish from the public eye, leaving the gawkers in his wake without so much as a wave or a glance backward. 
 
 Otherwise, he risks falling into the same toxic mentality that landed him in prison in the first place. 
 
 “He just says, 'We’ll be together again, my life will go back to normal,’ ” longtime friend Tom Scotto told USA TODAY Sports over the weekend. 
 
 Normal? There’s never been such a thing for O.J. Simpson. 
 
 A Hall of Fame running back who became a beloved broadcaster, actor and pitchman, Simpson wasn’t just a household name. He was a welcome guest in every American household. 
 
 Until the murders. 
 
 The Bronco chase, the so-called “trial of the century,” the bloody glove, those “ugly-ass shoes,” even a Kardashian thrown in for good measure – we didn’t realize it then, but the O.J. circus was the advent of reality TV. Everything about Simpson, before and after the trial, became a source of fascination. 
 
 Simpson was acquitted of murder charges Oct. 3, 1995, but was found responsible for Brown and Goldman’s deaths two years later in civil court. He was ordered to pay $33.5 million in damages to their families. 
 
 That’s not why he’s in prison, though. A confrontation with memorabilia collectors in Las Vegas led to armed robbery and kidnapping charges, and he was sentenced to a minimum of nine years in 2008. 
 
 Simpson’s time behind bars hasn’t diminished interest in him. A documentary on him won an Oscar this year while a television series dominated the Emmys last year. It’s no surprise, really. We have become a culture that revels in celebrity, drama and other people’s misfortunes, and Simpson checks every one of those boxes. 
 
 Which makes a vanishing act all the more imperative. 
 
 Simpson knows what happens when ego and hubris get the best of him. “I just wish I’d have never gone to that room,” he said, referring to the Las Vegas robbery, during a 2013 hearing that led to him being paroled on five of the lesser charges against him. 
 
 There’s even less benefit now to being a public curiosity. 
 
 Sure, there will be some who wish Simpson well. But many more will be rooting just as hard for him to fail. Opinions were set hard and fast long ago, and nothing Simpson does after his release is likely to change them. 
 
 Besides, any money he makes wouldn’t be his for long, anyway, with the Brown and Goldman families expected to renew their pursuit of the millions they’re owed. Though Simpson can shield many of his assets – his NFL pension, for example, is protected by law – Goldman’s father was awarded the rights to Simpson’s supposed confessional, If I Did It. 
 
 Though Simpson’s friend Scotto says the former football player is “in the best shape I’ve ever seen him,” we all have expiration dates and Simpson is closer to his now than when he went to prison. 
 
 He’s wasted the past nine years of his life. Unless he stays out of the spotlight, he’s likely to burn the rest, too. 
 
 Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour. ||||| Former football star and actor O.J. Simpson could be one step closer to freedom after more than eight years in a Nevada prison. 
 
 What you need to know about OJ Simpson's parole hearing in Nevada (Elaine Wilson/Las Vegas Review-Journal) 
 
 O.J. Simpson returns to the witness stand to testify after a break during an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas on May 15, 2013. (Julie Jacobson/AP, Pool, file) 
 
 O.J. Simpson looks over at his lawyer Tom Pitaro during an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 17, 2013 in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/AP, Pool) 
 
 Defense attorney Patricia Palm, left, and O.J. Simpson appear at an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court on May 17, 2013 in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/AP, Pool) 
 
 O.J. Simpson listens to audio recording played during an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court, Thursday, May 16, 2013 in Las Vegas. (Julie Jacobson/AP, Pool) 
 
 O.J. Simpson testifies during an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court, Wednesday, May 15, 2013 in Las Vegas. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine to 33-year sentence in state prison as a result of his October 2008 conviction for armed robbery and kidnapping charges, is using a writ of habeas corpus, to seek a new trial, claiming he had such bad representation that his conviction should be reversed. (Pool Photo/ Julie Jacobson) 
 
 FILE - In this May 13, 2013, file photo, O.J. Simpson appears at an evidentiary hearing in Clark County District Court, in Las Vegas. Los Angeles police are investigating a knife purportedly found some time ago at the former home of Simpson, who was acquitted of murder charges in the 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, Pool, File) 
 
 CARSON CITY — Former football star and actor O.J. Simpson could be one step closer to freedom after more than eight years in a Nevada prison. 
 
 Simpson, 70, could be released from Lovelock Correctional Center by Oct. 1 if the state Parole Board rules favorably on his release request following a Thursday hearing. Simpson will take part from Lovelock, a medium security facility where he is serving his sentence. The hearing will be teleconferenced to the board in Carson City. 
 
 Four members of the Parole Board will deliberate in private following the 10 a.m. testimony and then take a public vote. If the vote is unanimous in favor of parole, Simpson will be released this fall. Two other commissioners could participate if the vote is not unanimous. 
 
 Media interest in the hearing is overwhelming, unlike his first hearing in 2013 when Simpson was paroled from his first set of sentences for convictions related to the 2007 robbery of two memorabilia collectors at the Palace Station hotel-casino in Las Vegas. 
 
 Simpson is serving a nine- to 33-year sentence for the 12 convictions — including kidnapping and armed robbery — related to the incident. 
 
 Simpson said he was trying to recover memorabilia stolen from him. In his 2013 parole hearing, Simpson expressed remorse for the armed heist of memorabilia collectors Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley. 
 
 Simpson was found not guilty by a Los Angeles jury in 1995 of the 1994 deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman, in one of the most celebrated trials in American history. A jury in a civil trial in 1997 ordered Simpson to pay $25 million in punitive damages to the families of Simpson and Goldman after finding him liable for the murders. 
 
 Before those deaths, Simpson — known also by his nickname, “The Juice” — was one of the best known and liked former athletes in America, regularly appearing in films and TV commercials. 
 
 Second parole hearing 
 
 Simpson has been incarcerated at Lovelock, about 130 miles northeast of Carson City, since December 2008. He was paroled in July 2013 on two kidnapping and three other charges stemming from his 2007 robbery. He is now up for parole on a second set of sentences. 
 
 The sentences that are aggregated for purposes of the hearing include four concurrent sentences for use of a deadly weapon and two consecutive sentences for assault with a deadly weapon. 
 
 While the hearings are public, testimony is limited to the inmate, a representative of the inmate, if any, victims of the crime and one family member or supporter of the inmate. The board will consider confidential information, including a pre-sentence investigation, a parole hearing report, a risk assessment and letters of support or opposition, if any. 
 
 Well behaved 
 
 Simpson said at his 2013 parole hearing that he had been a model inmate during his five years in Lovelock. Simpson said he would “be the best prisoner they’ve ever had here” when he arrived and “for the most part I’ve kept my word on that.” 
 
 “I’ve not had any incidents despite all the stories in the tabloids and everything,” he told the parole board. 
 
 The board on Thursday will get an update on Simpson’s behavior over the past four years. 
 
 Simpson said in his 2013 statement that he had spoken to the victims and apologized for the incident, which he said got out of hand. 
 
 “We have, for the most part, put it behind us,” he said. 
 
 Simpson said the difference between he and other inmates is that they tried to steal other people’s property or money while he was trying to recover property that belonged to him. 
 
 “Make no mistake, I would give it all back to these guys,” he said. “They can have it all to give me back five years.” 
 
 Simpson said he has missed seeing his two younger children go through high school and missed his sister’s funeral. 
 
 Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Follow @seanw801 on Twitter. ||||| O.J. Simpson Parole Hearing Could Lead To His Release From Prison 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Ethan Miller/AP Ethan Miller/AP 
 
 O.J. Simpson will find out on Thursday if he soon will be released from the Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada. He has been held there for nearly nine years for convictions on armed robbery and other charges. 
 
 The former NFL hero, TV pitchman and movie star, now 70, stands a good chance of being granted parole when he appears before the Nevada Parole Board via video link. No one has registered to testify against him. He will likely try to persuade the board of his good behavior behind bars. 
 
 If paroled, Simpson would be released from prison no sooner than Oct. 1. 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption AP/Nevada Department of Corrections AP/Nevada Department of Corrections 
 
 As with all things O.J., there has been a tremendous media interest in the parole hearing. Thirty media organizations will be on-site in Carson City and at Lovelock Correctional Center, and many outlets will be streaming it live. 
 
 Ordinarily, the parole board's decision would be announced a few weeks after the hearing. But the board announced that it will rule in Simpson's case the same day as the hearing, saying that it has been a "disruption" and the board wants to "return to normal as soon as possible after the hearing." 
 
 It's not the way many Americans imagined he'd do time. The fame and adulation he once enjoyed are hard to overestimate. But it's also hard to overestimate how shocked his fans were when he was arrested in 1994 in the brutal slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. 
 
 He was acquitted of the murder charges in what became known as "the trial of the century." But years later, he couldn't beat the more mundane criminal charges stemming from a burglary gone wrong. 
 
 In 1995, when Simpson was acquitted in the brutal stabbing deaths of his ex-wife and her friend, opinions on the verdict broke down largely along racial lines. Many African-Americans believed that the verdict was fair, but most whites thought he'd gotten away with murder. 
 
 Two award-winning 2016 television productions provided reminders of how shocking the murder charges, trial and verdict were at the time: ESPN's documentary O.J.: Made in America and FX's The People v. O.J. Simpson. 
 
 Simpson had been a Heisman Trophy winner while playing football in college. He made the NFL Hall of Fame. After retiring from sports, he became a commentator and actor. He starred in commercials for Hertz Rental Cars that showed him hurdling obstacles in an airport the way he once hurdled defensive linemen. He proved himself a decent comic foil in the popular Naked Gun movies. He was glamorous and rich. 
 
 But after all his glory and his infamy, he was convicted of a botched 2007 burglary in a cheap Las Vegas hotel. Along with a handful of accomplices, the former star broke into the room of a couple of sports memorabilia dealers. They had some items that Simpson believed belonged to him and that he wanted back. A couple of guys with Simpson brought guns. 
 
 Simpson was later convicted on 12 criminal counts including armed robbery, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to nine to 33 years. 
 
 In his 2013 parole hearing, Simpson told the Nevada Parole Board that he wished he'd never gone into the hotel room. 
 
 "I wish I'd said, 'Keep it and not worry about it,' " Simpson said. 
 
 He also argued to the parole board that he'd been a model prisoner. When he'd arrived at Lovelock, "I gave [prison officials] my word that I would try to be, or would be, the best prisoner they ever had here. And I think for the most part, I've kept my word on that." 
 
 He spoke via video conference from prison, while the parole board met in Carson City more than 100 miles away. That same procedure will be followed Thursday. 
 
 In making parole decisions, the state of Nevada uses a scoring system to evaluate the risk a prisoner might pose to the community. The categories include an inmate's behavior in prison, as well as age. 
 
 "He deserves parole. It's as simple as that," says Yale Galanter, one of Simpson's defense attorneys in the armed robbery case. 
 
 Galanter believes that the Las Vegas jury was dishing out some payback, not so much for Simpson's murder acquittal 13 years earlier, but for a 2007 book that Simpson co-authored called, If I Did It. 
 
 Galanter says he could hear the jury's anger over the book when he questioned them. And he didn't blame them. 
 
 "How do you write a book that your children are going to see called 'If I killed your mother?' and 'If I killed your mother's friend?' I thought that was a totally, socially disgusting act." 
 
 In 1997, two years after his acquittal, Simpson was found liable for the deaths of Brown and Goldman in a civil suit brought by their families. He was ordered to give control of the book to the Goldman family as partial payment of the civil judgment, and they changed the name to If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. ||||| Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Christopher Darden's book "In Contempt" was published last year. It was published in 1996 and re-released in 2016. 
 
 (Reuters) 
 
 O.J. Simpson will soon be a free man. Again. A four-member parole board in Carson City, Nev., voted unanimously Thursday to curtail his 33-year prison sentence for kidnapping and armed robbery, stemming from a confrontation over sports memorabilia in Las Vegas in 2007. 
 
 The football legend, now 70 years old, could be released as soon as Oct. 1 into a world that’s still fascinated by his plummet from grace. 
 
 As the proceedings got underway, a smiling Simpson entered the hearing room at the Lovelock Correctional Center dressed in a light blue shirt with billowy sleeves, his hair splotched with white, his voice gravelly. Seated at a desk with his attorney, Simpson was by turns affable and testy, humbled and defiant. 
 
 “I always thought I’ve been pretty good with people,” Simpson told the board by video link, “and have basically spent a conflict-free life.” 
 
 The board did not press him on that assertion, despite allegations of domestic abuse against Simpson (he pleaded no contest to spousal abuse in 1989), and its members made clear that they were not re-litigating his trial and acquittal for the 1994 killings of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. 
 
 (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post) 
 
 Simpson’s eldest daughter, Arnelle Simpson, and one of Simpson’s victims from the Vegas case testified in support of his release. 
 
 “I’ve known O.J. for a long time,” said Bruce Fromong, a memorabilia dealer whom Simpson confronted with five other men, two of whom were armed. “I don’t feel that he’s a threat to anyone out there. He’s a good man. . . . I feel that it’s time to give him a second chance.” 
 
 The networks and cable-news stations devoted live coverage to the case throughout the day, enlisting key players from Simpson’s murder trial. 
 
 [O.J.’s last defender — F. Lee Bailey — is broke, disbarred and working above a hair salon] 
 
 “The circus is back in town,” declared Mark Fuhrman, the former Los Angeles detective whose racist remarks were weaponized in 1995 by Simpson’s defense team, in an essay for FoxNews.com. “O.J. Simpson is getting exactly what he loves — attention.” 
 
 1 of 18 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × O.J. Simpson is released from prison View Photos O.J. Simpson has been freed on parole after nine years in prison for robbery to retrieve sports memorabilia in Las Vegas. A Nevada parole board decided in July to release the 70-year-old former football, TV and movie star after serving his minimum term for the armed robbery and assault with a weapon. Caption O.J. Simpson has been freed on parole after nine years in prison for robbery to retrieve sports memorabilia in Las Vegas. A Nevada parole board decided in July to release the 70-year-old former football, TV and movie star after serving his minimum term for the armed robbery and assault with a weapon. Oct. 1, 2017 Hall of Fame football player O.J. Simpson signs documents before leaving Lovelock Correctional Center in Lovelock, Nev. Simpson, whose racially charged 1995 murder trial riveted the nation, was released from jail on parole today, after nine years behind bars for armed robbery. Nevada Department of Corrections/AFP/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 On the “Today” show Thursday morning, Christopher Darden, one of the prosecutors for Simpson’s murder trial, was asked what he would say to Simpson if he was on the Nevada parole board. 
 
 “Well, ‘Did you kill Ron and Nicole?’ ” said Darden, illustrating how Simpson remains inextricably linked to the earlier crime. 
 
 “But of course that’s not legally relevant” to the Las Vegas case, said NBC host Savannah Guthrie. 
 
 “Well that’s the one question I’d like to ask,” Darden said. “I think that’s the one question everybody would like to ask.” 
 
 It probably is. O.J. Simpson is perhaps the only story that could force cable news to cut away from merry-go-round coverage of President Trump, Russia and the health-care meltdown in Congress. 
 
 Sex, violence, wealth, power, hubris, race, fame, Kardashians, law and order — the Simpson case had it all in 1994 and 1995, and still does. 
 
 “It is one whale of a good story,” ABC’s Ted Koppel said at the time. The murder trial, broadcast by courtroom cameras and covered gavel to gavel by CNN, would come to represent a coarsening of public debate and an acceleration of the 24-hour news cycle. 
 
 “When a tabloid tornado begins to spin . . . even the best among us tend to get caught up in it,” CBS anchor Dan Rather told the Los Angeles Times after the verdict, which polarized blacks and whites anew after the 1992 Los Angeles riots. “Before you know it . . . your standards have just broken open and you’re not applying the same rules that you do to other stories.” 
 
 People born between Simpson’s arrest and acquittal are old enough to drink legally, and the ’90s have receded far enough to trigger waves of nostalgia. American culture was due for a reminder and a reckoning, and television provided two major rehashings of the saga just last year: a 10-episode FX miniseries starring Cuba Gooding Jr., and a 7½-hour, Oscar-winning documentary — in which erstwhile confidants professed their belief in Simpson’s guilt, defense attorneys admitted to hoodwinking the jury, and one juror stated that the verdict was payback for the police beating of Rodney King. 
 
 Simpson, meanwhile, was where many people thought he should’ve been in the first place: prison. Public perception of Simpson’s guilt has increased over time. A majority of both black and white people now agree that he was at least “probably guilty” of the murders, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted last year. 
 
 Nevada's Lovelock Correctional Center, where Simpson has been incarcerated since 2008. (Terry Chea/AP) 
 
 Simpson participated in Thursday’s hearing by video conference from the medium-security Lovelock Correctional Center, a cropping of white buildings in the vast beigeness of northwestern Nevada. He’s lived there as Inmate 1027820 since he was convicted and sentenced in 2008. The families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman drew a direct connection between their 1994 killings and the incident at the Palace Station hotel in Vegas. 
 
 “Allowing wealth, power and control to consume himself, he made a horrific choice on June 12, 1994, which has spiraled into where he is today,” Nicole’s sister Denise Brown said in a statement after the conviction, which came 13 years to the day after Simpson was acquitted for the murders. The Goldmans had already won a $33.5 million wrongful-death lawsuit against Simpson, which they believed drove him to reclaim valuable memorabilia. 
 
 When he began his time at Lovelock, Simpson told the warden that he would try to be “the best prisoner they’ve ever had” — a sad echo of his bygone athletic prowess. During the ensuing nine years, Simpson mopped floors, disinfected gym equipment, coached inmate sports teams and led Bible study. He missed his children's’ graduations. He missed his sister’s funeral. He was commissioner of the prison’s softball league. He was wait-listed for a prison course called “Commitment to Change,” which he didn’t end up taking, and never enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous, though he admitted the Vegas incident was fueled by booze. Other younger inmates came to him for advice, Simpson claimed, and he has mediated and defused conflicts. His favorite course was called “Alternative to Violence.” 
 
 “I am sorry that things turned out the way they did,” Simpson said during the hearing, as the parole board weighed his risk to the public. “I had no intent to commit a crime. . . . I’ve done my time. I’d just like to get back to my family and friends — and believe it or not I do have some real friends.” 
 
 Americans now have Twitter and Facebook to offer their own armchair testimony in a cultural inquisition that may never end. 
 
 Photos of a battered Nicole Brown Simpson circulated on Twitter with the ironic quotation “conflict free life.” 
 
 “I don’t feel sympathy for O.J. Simpson,” former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe wrote on Facebook. “He left the black community a long time ago. If he gets out, I never want to hear his name mentioned again.” 
 
 “I thought his statements were self-justifying, self-pitying, showing no remorse, no understanding, no sense of reality about his own life,” said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin during the network’s breathless coverage. Simpson “is a deeply delusional and self-obsessed narcissist, and good luck to America once he’s out.” 
 
 Simpson was paroled on one set of charges in 2013, after apologizing to the board for the Vegas incident; the other set required an additional four-year term, at minimum, which ends this year. His maximum sentence of 33 years was viewed by some as retribution for his acquittal in 1995. 
 
 “It really made us all aware that, despite our best efforts, it’s very difficult to separate the California case from the Nevada case,” Simpson’s lawyer Yale Galanter said at the time. 
 
 Now, this chapter of the saga is ending. Simpson, who plans to move to Florida to be near family, could be golfing by the autumn. Darden published a best-selling memoir in 1996 titled “In Contempt.” Defense attorneys Johnnie Cochran and Robert Kardashian are dead. F. Lee Bailey, who famously cross-examined Fuhrman, is mostly broke and working above a hair salon in Maine. In September, the maligned lead prosecutor Marcia Clark was at the Emmy Awards ceremony in support of “The People vs. O.J. Simpson”; her eyes welled with tears when the actor Sarah Paulson took the stage and apologized on behalf of a judgmental nation. 
 
 But at the root of it all, still, is a double murder. On “Good Morning America” Thursday, the family of Ron Goldman vowed to continue pursuing Simpson’s assets, as a form of perpetual punishment. 
 
 “What’s troubling to me is [that] the whole system gives second chances to violent felons,” said Fred Goldman, Ron’s father. “Ron doesn’t get a second chance.”
– OJ Simpson's parole hearing in Nevada will be broadcast live at 1pm EDT Thursday and there's a strong chance that his path to freedom will be clear by the end of the afternoon. Nobody has registered to testify against the 70-year-old Simpson, who has been in prison for nine years on 12 convictions related to a Las Vegas robbery and will appear before the Nevada Parole Board via videolink, NPR reports. Thursday's hearing will cover four concurrent sentences for use of a deadly weapon and two consecutive sentences for assault with a deadly weapon, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Four board members will vote after the hearing and Simpson could be free by Oct. 1 if they are all in favor of parole. If Simpson is indeed released this fall—which appears almost certainly to be the decision—it will "renew the rabid curiosity" in the case and "produce a spectacle unlike anything we’ve seen since he went behind bars," Nancy Armour at USA Today predicts. There has even been talk that Simpson might end up with a reality TV show, but Armour wants Simpson to avoid the spotlight unless he wants to return to the "toxic mentality that landed him in prison in the first place." If the former NFL star does end up with a TV show, the money is likely to go to the families of murder victims Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, CBS News reports. He will still receive an NFL pension estimated at $25,000 per month.