Should OJ Simpson be on the new stadiums Wall of Fame?

[boyst]

Just now, PonyBoy said:

A simplistic way to make this judgement is...

 

Of any other NFL team having names on ring of honor. Has any past member been tried for such heinous murders? 

 

Caused such division in the USA? 

 

Ray Lewis is my 1st thought as a HOF, but very different being an accomplice, which was likely but not proven. No nationwide division. 

 

Rae Carruth, scum bag, not a ring of honor guy with so little contributed.

 

Questionable characters on many of these walls? Sure.

 

No one can ever forget OJ on the field! But he lost that privilege to be honored locally in the new stadium. IMO.

 

 

Ray Lewis did it and had someone take wrap. 

[PonyBoy]

Just now, boyst said:

Ray Lewis did it and had someone take wrap. 

 

It didn't divide a racial base in the country like OJ' s case did though. That case set camaraderie back 25-30 years. 

 

Exiting this post now. I don't want to get warned or suspended if what I replied is political. 

 

Have a great evening boyst.

Like your posts!

[Victory Formation]

The man is dead, I'm not going to badmouth him or trash him in any way, but no..

 

His name should not only not be on the wall, but his name should never be said again..

[hondo in seattle]

OJ was unreal.  Otherworldly.  Quite possibly the greatest pure running back of all time. 

 

In his prime, when RBs were still kings of the gridiron and defenses were built to stop the run, he was a man among boys.

 

In 1973, he nearly doubled the yardage total of the next best guy (2003 vs. 1,144).  Barry Sanders never did that.  Walter Payton never did that.  Even among QBs, Tom Brady never had that kind of statistical separation over his peers.  Not even close.  Prime OJ might be the most dominant football player ever to put on a helmet.

 

And I still vote hard no on the Wall of Fame. 

 

OJ wasn’t just a great player, he was also a murderous POS.  You don’t enshrine scum like him on a Wall of Fame.  If I were family of the people he killed, I’d be sick to my stomach seeing Buffalo lionizing him. 

 

But history is history.  His talent and accomplishments are part of Bills lore.  I think we should have a Bills museum at the new stadium.  Let's put OJ in the history wing, not on the Wall of Fame.  Show the jaw-dropping highlights.  Acknowledge that for a chunk of time when he was the franchise.  But keep the Wall of Fame for guys like Bob Kalsu whose legacy you can actually be proud to stand under.

[hondo in seattle]

4 hours ago, Special K said:

I think you are forgetting someone......

 

 

Nope. Look at OJ's 1973 stats.  Josh has never achieved that level of dominance and never will.  It's not an insult. Tom Brady never achieved that level of dominance.  No one has.  

 

Josh is pretty universally recognized as one of the top three QBs of his era.  People debate who's #1.  I vote Josh.  

But in OJ's time, there was no debate.  Prime OJ was hands down the best of his era.  The only argument was whether or not he was better than Jim Brown who was widely heralded as the GOAT.  

[Royale with Cheese]

You don't have to be a good person on the field to make a Ring on any team, you just can't commit something at the level of homicide.

[Special K]

33 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

Nope. Look at OJ's 1973 stats.  Josh has never achieved that level of dominance and never will.  It's not an insult. Tom Brady never achieved that level of dominance.  No one has.  

 

Josh is pretty universally recognized as one of the top three QBs of his era.  People debate who's #1.  I vote Josh.  

But in OJ's time, there was no debate.  Prime OJ was hands down the best of his era.  The only argument was whether or not he was better than Jim Brown who was widely heralded as the GOAT.  

 

All I was saying is that any list of "Best Player to ever wear a Bills Uniform" that doesn't include Josh Allen is an incomplete list...I'm sure we can agree on that.......

[uticaclub]

1 hour ago, Victory Formation said:

The man is dead, I'm not going to badmouth him or trash him in any way, but no..

 

His name should not only not be on the wall, but his name should never be said again..

Who lead the league in rushing in 1973?

 

Who played Det. Nordberg in the original Naked Gun series?

 

 

 

 

[Victory Formation]

12 minutes ago, uticaclub said:

Who lead the league in rushing in 1973?

 

Who played Det. Nordberg in the original Naked Gun series?

 

 

 

 

Don't care...

[Starr Almighty]

I say yes but only if the Pats put Aaron Hernandez up on their stadium wall

[stevestojan]

 

19 minutes ago, Starr Almighty said:

I say yes but only if the Pats put Aaron Hernandez up on their stadium wall

Steve, do not make a joke about hanging Hernandez twice being overkill. 

Edited June 1 by stevestojan

[Gregg]

As far as retired players go OJ is in the top 2 in Bills history. Josh will eventually be in the top 2 but he is still playing so I am not counting him yet. As for retired players Bruce is the greatest defensive player in Bills history. OJ is the greatest offensive player in Bills history. With that said murder is an unforgivable act and his name should not be on the new stadium.

 

Remember the murder from about 20 years ago when Chris Benoit (WWE) murdered his wife/son and then committed suicide. When all the facts came out that it was a murder/suicide the WWE removed Benoit from everything WWE related. Wouldn't mention his name on TV programs, show replays of his matches, removed all his merchandise with the company. He was never mentioned again. They made the right call as again murder is an unforgiveable act.

[machine gun kelly]

9 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

OJ was unreal.  Otherworldly.  Quite possibly the greatest pure running back of all time. 

 

In his prime, when RBs were still kings of the gridiron and defenses were built to stop the run, he was a man among boys.

 

In 1973, he nearly doubled the yardage total of the next best guy (2003 vs. 1,144).  Barry Sanders never did that.  Walter Payton never did that.  Even among QBs, Tom Brady never had that kind of statistical separation over his peers.  Not even close.  Prime OJ might be the most dominant football player ever to put on a helmet.

 

And I still vote hard no on the Wall of Fame. 

 

OJ wasn’t just a great player, he was also a murderous POS.  You don’t enshrine scum like him on a Wall of Fame.  If I were family of the people he killed, I’d be sick to my stomach seeing Buffalo lionizing him. 

 

But history is history.  His talent and accomplishments are part of Bills lore.  I think we should have a Bills museum at the new stadium.  Let's put OJ in the history wing, not on the Wall of Fame.  Show the jaw-dropping highlights.  Acknowledge that for a chunk of time when he was the franchise.  But keep the Wall of Fame for guys like Bob Kalsu whose legacy you can actually be proud to stand under.

Hondo is right in that the 70’s and before we’re running based teams.  I looked up the years, the number of games, and then divided the yards in their signature years by number of games in the season.  On one hand. OJ was the last person to accomplish 2000 yards divided by 14 games.  The NFL went to 16 games in 1978, and 17 games in 2021.

 

So here they are on a game game basis.  I can’t parse out if a player was hurt or sat out in any game.  That’s impossible to figure out.

 

OJ- 143.07

Eric Dickerson- 131.56

Adrien Peterson- 131.06

Jamal Lewis- 129.12

Derrick Henry- 126.68

Terrel Davis- 125.5

Chris Johnson- 125.37

Saquan Barkley- 119.11

 

The only person to do this in 17 games was Barkley.  I didn’t calculate by 16, because even though he sat out game 17, he could’ve played in the 17th game.  I don’t know the players on this list that sat out hurt one game as I just can’t to that level.  If you wanted to take Bartley’s by 16 would be 126.56.

 

So on one hand, OJ had the most successful single season performance in NFL history.  I even went back to the great Jim Brown, and he never ran for an avg. of 143.07/game.

 

So as a person he was a monster, but his gold jacket was not taken away from the HOF as they indicate repeatedly on HOF radio in NFLR on Sirius that off the field behavior does not become relevant to the gold jacket.

 

So, I don’t care whether he stays up on the wall or not.  If you factor his off the field reprehensible behavior, then sure take him off.  If you want to stick strictly to the on the field performance, then he belongs in the HOF and the Highmark Wall.  If you decide his criminal behavior later in life factors into your decision, then he comes off.

 

Im not taking a position either way.  I do recognize he had the best single year performance of any Bill in history.  So there you go.  I looked up all this stuff two years ago, but it seemed relevant now.

 

As they say, you guys make the call.  My last point is I do t care if he was acquitted, the trial was a joke, and he is as guilty as sin.  I normally don’t judge people until a trial is over ,but in this case, the prosecution had it wrong.

[eball]

On 5/31/2026 at 5:40 AM, SoMAn said:

No. 
Sadly, the name is more closely associated with a heinous murder and a farcical criminal trial than with gridirons greatness. 
 

He never set foot in the new stadium, and his achievements on the.field will forever be acknowledged in Canton, OH.  

Good enough.
 

More than 50 years later, no other running back has equaled the per-game numbers that Simpson put up in 1973. One of the greatest ever.  That’s the guy who donned a uniform 60 hours a year. 
 

The rest of the time he was a narcissistic egomaniac. Like many sociopaths he was incredibly charismatic and was able to use his charm to get anything he wanted. 
 

Almost. 
 

When he didn’t get his way, murder was a reasonable solution in his mind. 
 

When we see images of Josh (and others) spending personal time with sick kids at children’s hospitals, we see the man, not a ball player. I don’t have any memory of Simpson doing similar charitable work. 

Simpson’s name has no place on a marquis alongside other revered Bills players who exemplified greatness on and off the field.  
 

When we’re sharing our game day experiences with our children and grandchildren, we don’t need a reminder of a man who got away with murder. 
 

 

 

23 hours ago, Kirby Jackson said:

This is a tricky one for me. OJ is one of the 3 greatest players in franchise history with Bruce and Josh. OJ was a horrible person. Both things are true. 
 

So what is the purpose of the WOF? Is it to recognize the best players in franchise history or people that represented the franchise the best? The Bills WOF is a bit of a mixed bag. You have some HOF players. You have a war hero. You have some of contributors that played a role in creating the Bills story. You then have a couple of random role players in Richter and Hansen that have no business up there. There is no real rhyme or reason to the people on the WOF.

 

With that in mind, I vote no. The criteria is way too random. If we are just throwing names of people that are associated with the Bills, it’s fine to exclude others. While OJ was one of the 3 best football players in team history, he should not be honored because of everything that came after. The wall doesn’t represent “the best players.” Many of them are up there but that’s not what it’s about. He’s in the HOF and that’s where the best players careers are recognized. With the fresh start of the new stadium we get a fresh chance to eliminate him from the wall.

The only thing I really hope is that the people making this decision are having these kinds of insightful and reflective discussions, and not just making a knee-jerk reaction. 
 

To me, OJ’s football statistics are always there and can never be erased. We don’t need to put his name in a place that is supposed to characterize a celebration of some sort. 
 

[colin]

as a player he should have a statue in buffalo, but his trial and all the fanfare makes it a political/social/cultural hot cake and as an owner you'd be making a really really bold statement putting him up there.  it's ironic that he was found not guilty too, it kinda creates an out for pegula to put him up, but the water is still a little too hot IMO.

 

to me OJ is a great boundary case for our society as a whole.  total super star player, movie star and announcer, never had a spec of dirt on him.  brutal double murder, the car chase and all that, the circus trial and the legal dream team (jonny cochran and the kardashian empire rose from that).  he was found not guilty but i think most people if they admit it or not think he did it, or think he was at least involved.  massive racial divide revealed from the jury, the reaction, and how people think about him ever since.

 

the other part of it is it was (presuming it wasn't some random thing not involving oj at all) a classic crime of passion, people are enthralled by these stories, true crime stories have become a fan favorite genre all to themselves.

 

i think no matter what, OJ simpson the player and the whole rest of him should be remembered, there is a lot to learn about life and society there.

[frostbitmic]

One of if not the best player to ever wear a Buffalo Bills uniform on the field.

 

Off the field he was tried for the murder of his ex wife and her friend, somehow wasn't convicted for that, lost a civil suit on that matter, was later convicted and did time for armed robbery ... Why sully the new building with his name IMO.

[PrimeTime101]

14 hours ago, boyst said:

It shocked me. In 2018 (I think) I went to the opener and they had him on hype videos in screen. They had him on promos and posters up. The crowd gave me grief, as expected. But a guy who reminded me of don Vito from bam magera was drunk and really went after it. He started making fun of OJ. I started making fun of Ray Lewis. The section got into it with me for talking about it. I had enough when he bashed Jim Kelly being a jawless cancer stricken guy. His wife took him home before it got too silly.

 

The Baltimore ravens official message boards won't let you bring up Ray Lewis and his crimes, either. 

thats crazy. 

[st pete gogolak]

A great, great player. Certainly one of the all time greats. If he had been convicted of embezzlement or even vehicular homicide, sure put him on the wall. But he killed two people in cold blood.  Nope, doesn’t go on the wall.  Put Bob Kalsu on the wall.

[GerstAusGosheim]

Of course not. He was a wife beater even before he was a murderer. Also a drug addict. That's not someone you honor. We have museums for history. 

[BillsPride12]

1 hour ago, colin said:

as a player he should have a statue in buffalo, but his trial and all the fanfare makes it a political/social/cultural hot cake and as an owner you'd be making a really really bold statement putting him up there.  it's ironic that he was found not guilty too, it kinda creates an out for pegula to put him up, but the water is still a little too hot IMO.

 

to me OJ is a great boundary case for our society as a whole.  total super star player, movie star and announcer, never had a spec of dirt on him.  brutal double murder, the car chase and all that, the circus trial and the legal dream team (jonny cochran and the kardashian empire rose from that).  he was found not guilty but i think most people if they admit it or not think he did it, or think he was at least involved.  massive racial divide revealed from the jury, the reaction, and how people think about him ever since.

 

the other part of it is it was (presuming it wasn't some random thing not involving oj at all) a classic crime of passion, people are enthralled by these stories, true crime stories have become a fan favorite genre all to themselves.

 

i think no matter what, OJ simpson the player and the whole rest of him should be remembered, there is a lot to learn about life and society there.

Not publicly until the murders but once he was under a microscope and people started to peel back the onion there was a lot of dirt on him.  The guy was a sociopath