The Buffalo Bills have decided to exclude accused murderer, convicted thief, and former Bills star OJ Simpson from its hall of fame display at the nearly completed new Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York.
Simpson played with the Buffalo Bills for nine of his eleven seasons in pro football and became one of the greatest NFL running backs of all time during those years in New York, becoming the first running back in league history to exceed 2,000 rushing yards in a single season.
Despite that history, though, the team has decided not to include OJ in their new hall of fame display, according to WIVB-TV.
On Saturday, Pete Guelli, chief operating officer for the Bills, said, “We have made an organizational decision that he is not a fit to display inside our new stadium and family circle.”
The Bills’ plan for its “family circle” will include statues of three large bison along with plaques honoring team greats.
Simpson had been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1985, but his legacy was forever tarnished ten years later when he was arrested and tried in Los Angeles for the brutal murder of his wife, Nicole, and her friend Ronald Goldman.
The famed NFL star, and later a Hollywood actor, was ultimately found not guilty of the murders, but a civil trial held him liable, and he was ordered to pay the Goldman family $33.5 million.
Simpson had other legal issues, and one of them did lead to jail time. In 2008, he was convicted of robbery for leading several men to the hotel room of a sports memorabilia dealer and robbing the man of his collectibles at gunpoint. Simpson spent almost nine years in prison for the crime. He was released from parole in 2021 and passed away three years later.
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