Bills fan explains why OJ Simpson should have been included in Buffalo’s new wall of fame
As the Buffalo Bills move into the new Highmark Stadium, the team made the organizational decision to leave O.J. Simpson off the new Family Circle Wall of Fame display. In this clip, a diehard Bills superfan reacts to the omission, arguing that Simpson’s historic 1973 MVP season and on-field legacy should be evaluated separately from his post-NFL double-murder trial in which he was acquitted. Should the franchise honor the athlete, or did leadership make the right call?
The Buffalo Bills can attempt to scrub O.J. Simpson from their history, but members of Bills Mafia say they’ll never forget what ‘Juice’ meant to the franchise.
At the new Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, Simpson, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was left off the team’s new Wall of Fame, which honors the greatest players in team history. Sure, there was the messy double-murder trial in which O.J. was acquitted of murdering his ex-wife Nicole and Ron Goldman, but Bills fans argue the Wall of Fame should be based on accomplishments on the field, not drama off it.
Double murder defendant O.J. Simpson looks at a new pair of Aris extra-large gloves prosecutors had him put on for the jury during his double murder trial in Los Angeles on June 21, 1995. The gloves were the same type found at the Bundy murder scene and the O.J. Simpson estate. (AFP via Getty Images)
“His personal life is his personal life,” Bills Mafia member Corey Teed told OutKick. “You put all that aside and you just make it about football, O.J. Simpson is the reason we started [putting] names on the wall. If you go back far enough in Bills history and you look, you put all the legal stuff aside, the wife murdered, all that, and you look at football alone, and his stats, as a running back, he was the reason we started putting names on the wall.”
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Teed has a point. Simpson was, in fact, the first member of the franchise to be inducted and remained the only member from 1980 until 1984 when Jack Kemp became the second inductee. “When I came here in my rookie year, I was nervous, didn’t have any friends and we weren’t winning many games,” O.J. said during the induction ceremony in 1980. “But it let me understand that in Buffalo, appreciation comes with respect. It’s something you earn.
O.J. Simpson, a Buffalo Bills player, is inducted into the Wall of Fame at Rich Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., on Sept. 14, 1980. He is accompanied by his parents, his son Jason and Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson. (Getty Images)
“They were the most valuable years of my life. I’ll remember those accomplishments as I live the rest of my life and raise my kids.”
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O.J. died April 10, 2024.
Now, with The Juice gone and a new stadium, Bills ownership has moved on. That decision has left fans like Teed shaking their heads.
Bills superfan Corey Teed (left) says OJ Simpson’s on-field accomplishments for the franchise shouldn’t be overshadowed by his life after football. Teed believes the team made a mistake by not including Juice on its wall of fame outside Highmark Stadium. (OutKick)
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“We got players in the NFL right now, on my fantasy football team – Rashee Rice – that can legally be in jail for certain things and he’s playing football, right? We still give them credit and they’re still playing. So, why 40 years later, whatever it is, 30, 20, you’re gonna take him off for something that had nothing to do with his personal life?”
Rice served 30 days in jail during May and June for violating his probation relating to a 2025 case in which he was sentenced to five years of deferred probation following a high-speed crash in 2024. Multiple people were in the crash in which Rice was driving nearly 120 miles per hour.
Teed’s opinion isn’t controversial in Buffalo. Former Erie County (NY) legislator Betty Jean Grant made headlines last week when she shared similar feelings on O.J.’s omission. “This is an American issue of a man who made Buffalo, who made the Buffalo Bills. Had he not done what he did from 1969 to 1977, the Buffalo Bills would not be here to play in the stadium,” she said during a news conference.
“They would not be here. He made Buffalo. He built Buffalo, the Rock Pile. He made Buffalo world famous.”