The Buffalo Bills have decided O.J. Simpson will not be included on the team’s Legend Wall at the new Highmark Stadium, ending months of uncertainty over whether one of the franchise’s greatest players would be honored at the new venue.
“We have made an organizational decision that he is not a fit to display inside our new stadium and Family Circle,” Bills chief operating officer Pete Guelli said in a statement Saturday.
The move resolves a question the organization had been weighing for months. Earlier this year, the Bills said designers were preparing layouts both including and excluding Simpson while a final decision was made.
The Family Circle is a year-round gathering space outside the stadium’s secure entrance. The plaza features three giant bison sculptures surrounded by a Bills Legend Wall with illuminated plaques recognizing members of the franchise’s Wall of Fame, along with displays celebrating Western New York history.
Simpson, a Pro Football Hall of Famer, remains one of the most accomplished players in Bills history. He won the 1973 NFL MVP award, became the first player in NFL history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season and led the league in rushing four times during his nine seasons in Buffalo.
His football accomplishments were later overshadowed by his legal history. Simpson was acquitted in the 1995 criminal trial in the killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, but was later found liable for their deaths in a civil case. In 2008, he was convicted on charges including armed robbery and kidnapping stemming from a Las Vegas hotel confrontation over sports memorabilia. He served nine years in prison before being released on parole in 2017.
Simpson’s name was displayed on the Wall of Fame at the Bills’ previous Highmark Stadium, which closed after the 2025 season.
The Bills have gradually distanced themselves from Simpson in recent years. When he died of prostate cancer at age 76 in April 2024, the organization did not issue a public statement acknowledging his death.
The new Highmark Stadium is scheduled to open this summer, with the Bills’ annual Return of the Blue & Red practice on Saturday, Aug. 8. They will play home preseason games on Saturday Aug. 15 and Thursday, Aug. 27, and their first regular season at the venue set for Thursday, Sept. 17 against the Detroit Lions.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills exclude Pro Football Hall of Famer from new Highmark Stadium honors
