Bills exclude O.J. Simpson from Highmark Stadium honors

The Buffalo Bills will not include O.J. Simpson in the honors at Highmark Stadium, drawing a hard line around who gets memorialized in the franchise’s new public spaces. Team official Pete Guelli said Simpson is “not a fit” for display inside the stadium or in the Family Circle plaza that will hold plaques for other Wall of Fame inductees.

The decision keeps Simpson out of a $2.1 billion stadium that opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 23, 2026, in Orchard Park, New York. The new building is one of the largest infrastructure projects in Western New York history, and the Bills have used its debut to shape a curated version of team memory, one that emphasizes contributors the organization is willing to celebrate in its next era.

Simpson remains one of the most accomplished players in Bills history. Buffalo made him the No. 1 pick in the 1969 NFL draft, and he spent nine of his 11 professional seasons in Buffalo. In 1973, he became the first NFL player to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, finishing with 2,003 yards, a record that still anchors his football legacy even as his off-field history overshadowed it.

The Bills had long distanced themselves from Simpson after the 1994 killings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. He was acquitted in the 1995 criminal trial, later found liable in civil court for the deaths, and served nine years in prison on unrelated charges. Simpson died of prostate cancer in April 2024 at age 76, and the team did not publicly acknowledge his death.

At the stadium opening, Bills owner Terry Pegula said fans helped finance the project through $263 million in personal seat license purchases. The club also said 5,369 workers’ names were added to the building in its “We Built This House” tribute, underscoring the way Highmark Stadium is being presented as a monument to builders, backers and on-field history without Simpson in the frame.