Football player in a blue Buffalo Bills jersey number 32 leaning on a white helmet against a red background.
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The Buffalo Bills Won’t Honor O.J. Simpson at Their New Stadium, Even Though He Was the First Name on Their Wall of Fame

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OJ Simpson was the very first name inducted into the Bills’ Wall of Fame back in 1980, and his name stayed on display there for decades through years of debate.

That ends at the $2.1 billion Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, where franchise legends get honored in the family circle, a public, park-like plaza outside the venue with three giant bison statues and illuminated plaques for Wall of Fame members. The family-oriented framing makes COO Pete Guelli’s wording land harder: Simpson “is not a fit to display inside our new stadium and family circle,” he told PEOPLE. Per ESPN, his is likely the only name from the old Wall of Fame that won’t make the move, and the debate over including him was still going as recently as this spring.

Buffalo Bills running back O.J. Simpson in blue number 32 jersey, holding a helmet, posing against a red background in the early 1970s.
Wearing his number 32 jersey, O.J. Simpson poses for an official portrait as a Buffalo Bills running back in the early 1970s. Photo by Focus on Sport via Getty Images.

He’s still in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The Bills are carving him out of their own honors while the national hall keeps him in.

O.J. Simpson in a dark suit and blue patterned tie walking in front of a brick wall.
O.J. Simpson, dressed in a dark suit and patterned tie, arrives at a Nevada courthouse during his 2008 armed robbery and kidnapping trial. Photo by Judy Eddy / WENN.

ESPN and Buffalo CBS affiliate WIVB broke the news on June 27, just four days after the stadium’s grand opening. Guelli’s statement to PEOPLE followed a day later.

O.J. Simpson and his girlfriend Christina sitting together smiling in a restaurant booth with drinks on the table.
O.J. Simpson smiles alongside his girlfriend Christina at the Astor Restaurant in South Beach, Miami, on September 24, 1999. Photo by Manny Hernandez / WENN.

Simpson was the first pick by Buffalo in the 1969 AFL-NFL Common Draft and played nine seasons with the team through 1978 before finishing his career with the 49ers. He became the first player to rush for over 2,000 yards in a single season in 1973, finishing with 2,003 in a 14-game schedule, and was named NFL Player of the Year three times in the ’70s. He was acquitted in the 1995 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman but later found liable in civil court, served nine years for an armed robbery conviction, and died in 2024 at 76.

O.J. Simpson in a black suit and striped tie walking along a sidewalk outside a courthouse, carrying papers.
Clutching documents underarm, O.J. Simpson strides out of a Santa Monica courthouse in 1997 during civil proceedings against him. Photo by The Mega Agency.

Highmark Stadium had its grand opening on June 23. The Bills play their first regular-season game there against the Detroit Lions on September 17.

Black-and-white portrait of a smiling, bearded O.J. Simpson wearing a newsboy cap and open-collar patterned shirt.
A bearded O.J. Simpson laughs during a sit-down interview with the Toronto Sun following a Buffalo Bills practice in Buffalo, N.Y., in October 1975. Photo by Michael Peake / Toronto Sun / QMI Agency.

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Football player in a blue Buffalo Bills jersey number 32 leaning on a white helmet against a red background.
Focus On Sport Focus on Sport
Buffalo Bills running back O.J. Simpson in blue number 32 jersey, holding a helmet, posing against a red background in the early 1970s.
Wearing his number 32 jersey, O.J. Simpson poses for an official portrait as a Buffalo Bills running back in the early 1970s. Photo by Focus on Sport via Getty Images.
O.J. Simpson in a dark suit and blue patterned tie walking in front of a brick wall.
O.J. Simpson, dressed in a dark suit and patterned tie, arrives at a Nevada courthouse during his 2008 armed robbery and kidnapping trial. Photo by Judy Eddy WENN.
O.J. Simpson and his girlfriend Christina sitting together smiling in a restaurant booth with drinks on the table.
O.J. Simpson smiles alongside his girlfriend Christina at the Astor Restaurant in South Beach, Miami, on September 24, 1999. Photo by Manny Hernandez WENN.
O.J. Simpson in a black suit and striped tie walking along a sidewalk outside a courthouse, carrying papers.
Clutching documents underarm, O.J. Simpson strides out of a Santa Monica courthouse in 1997 during civil proceedings against him. Photo by The Mega Agency.
Black-and-white portrait of a smiling, bearded O.J. Simpson wearing a newsboy cap and open-collar patterned shirt.
A bearded O.J. Simpson laughs during a sit-down interview with the Toronto Sun following a Buffalo Bills practice in Buffalo, N.Y., in October 1975. Photo by Michael Peake / Toronto Sun QMI Agency.