TL;DR:
The Bills are deciding whether or not to include O.J. Simpson in the new Highmark Stadium’s "Wall of Fame" before it opens this summer. Senior VP of Design Frank Cravotta confirmed that while Simpson’s name remains in the current stadium, the design team is preparing for both his potential exclusion from the new "Family Circle" and Legend Wall. Reporter Ryan Talbot notes that because the honors are moving to a new outdoor location, the organization has a unique opportunity to quietly omit him without the optics of a physical removal.

31 comments

  6. They should have physically removed him from the old stadium. How is this even a discussion?

    Every time I spoke with an opposing team’s fan, they saw it and laughed. Typically, they thought it was stupid and embarrassing.

    Then there are the edgelord jabronis who wear the jersey at the game, trying to be ‘main character’ attention seekers.

  7. Hot take: nobody should still be on it except those with their numbers retired. The ring of honor was already pretty much at full capacity and a lot of current fans probably don’t even know who half those guys are. I think there should be a plaque somewhere commemorating those guys, but let there be new legends of this new stadium.

    Sure, it’d be a little weird looking at it and just seeing three names up there, but it’d also be cool knowing it’ll eventually be filled with more and more names of great Bills that played in The Pit.

  8. You could take the long road to removing it by putting it on somewhere public, it gets repeatedly vandalized, to the point you eventually have to remove it.. or just not and no one cares, we all move on with our lives.

  11. I can wrap my head around not taking the name down, but consciously choosing to put it back up would be a crazy decision.

  13. I fully understand the sentiment and I’m in agreement with it, but I’d like to add a little historical perspective because I believe many of you did not grow up watching him. I’m guessing many just know of him from the highlights and the trial. Or just reading about him. That’s a no brainer for you folks.

    I was OJ almost every day after school playing nerf football, well me and Steve alternated. Then I was Payton and later Earl Campbell if I couldn’t be OJ. I started watching, really understanding and loving all things Bills in 1974 and had season tickets starting in 1975. Met him several times at autograph sessions when I was little. I had him sign his 2003 yards rushing card. I also had him sign a hat, a pennant, a football and 2 gameday programs at different times.

    I’ve watching him live and on TV many times. He was literally our only offense and teams couldn’t stop him. He was Barry Sanders before Barry Sanders. The cuts and moves he would make were ridiculous.

    When he was traded to SF it was like the air was let out the town. I actually cried. His knees were toast and he was basically washed, but it was soul crushing. It’s one of my handful of life moments that I can recall exactly where I was when I heard it.

    OJ was so embraced by the community and this was a big deal in the early 70s because of his color. His transition to commercials and then movies broadened his appeal and he was really a national phenomenon.

    What happened after of course altered everyone’s opinion along with mine of the man. A lot. The murders were obviously horrible, but how he acted after made things even worse. Then the whole theft thing was simply pathetic.

    I was in my 20s when the murders happened. I’d say for many years I was in the separatist camp that football and personal life should be thought of separately. Mostly because of my fond memories of my childhood and I needed to rationalize my adoration. Of course as I aged and had kids of my own you see you can’t separate the man from the sport. Honesty, integrity & sportsmanship are things we teach our kids and some of the reasons we put them into sports. The last thing you want to teach a kid or anyone is that you overlook things because of how good someone is at something.

    He should have been removed from the old stadium and there is zero question that he should not be put into the current stadium. Those were tougher words for me to write you can imagine. Very sad.

  19. Good. OJ will always be seen as a murderer first. Looking to have good role models for the next generation to look up to.

  21. For me, the question comes down to this: Does the Wall of Fame honor men, or does it honor contributions to the Buffalo Bills?

    If the former, then Simpson should not be honored anywhere. But if the latter, then omitting his contributions makes for an incomplete picture.

  23. I’m guessing OJ gets removed from the main “Wall of Fame” or however they do it to recognize the greats around the playing field. I’m also betting that inside the stadium there will be one or more “history of the Bills” museums, and he will be mentioned there as a player and his on-field achievements. Which is fine.

  24. I really wish we could separate the man from the performances, but it’s not really possible. He has a strong case for best Bill ever (probably Josh now, maybe? Not sure? Or Bruce?)… But yeah, can’t be celebrating murderers like that

  26. Make it the bills/murderer wall of fame and add additional Buffalo murderers, then it won’t be weird OJ is there

    This is the only reasonable compromise 

  31. That time he just randomly showed up to a game at The Ralph, around ‘03-04ish i wanna say. Lol!

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