Tony Tomsic-USA TODAY NETWORK
When the Buffalo Bills officially christen New Highmark Stadium with its first official NFL game against the Detroit Lions on Thursday night, a lot of things will be different.
There’ll be a canopy roof over the seats. Fans will be closer to the field, with a steeper vantage point, and the team’s iconic Wall of Fame will have one less number on it.
Fans who look up at the Wall of Fame will be hard-pressed to miss the fact that it no longer features the number 32, which honored former running back O.J. Simpson.
Simpson, who played nine seasons for the Bills and won the NFL MVP in 1973, was the first member of the Wall of Fame at the old stadium in 1980.
His number remained there until the closure of the stadium, even after his trial for the alleged murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and his time in jail on armed robbery and kidnapping charges.
Simpson, who died in 2024, won’t be honored at the new stadium, and not all Buffalo fans are happy about that.
O.J. Simpson’s name has been left off the Bills’ Wall of Fame at Highmark Stadium despite being up at The Ralph for decades — a decision not every fan agrees with. Activist Betty Jean Grant leads a movement to put his name back on the wall due to his on-field accomplishments. pic.twitter.com/y9BKpHVySG
— Spectrum News 1 BUF (@SPECNews1BUF) September 16, 2026
Buffalo Bills Fans Want O.J. Simpson On New Wall Of Fame
Activist Betty Jean Grant is leading a group of Bills fans who are calling for Simpson to be honored in the new stadium the same way he was in the old one.
“If they had been brave enough to say that ‘we don’t want him on the wall because we think he got away with murder,’ then they should say that,” Grant told reporters. “Not just say he’s not fit. What does not fit mean?
“He was fit when he ran for 2,000 yards and made Buffalo world famous. He was fit when he got inducted into the National Football League Hall of Fame in 1985. He was fit when he was put on a wall in Buffalo in 1980. He’s been on that wall for 46 years. He was on the wall for that first trial. He was on that wall for the second trial … third trial. He was on that wall for years after he died. Tell me now what’s changed?”
To be fair, Grant makes a good point. The Bills backed themselves into a logical corner by not removing Simpson from the Wall of Fame at the old stadium. She’s right. Nothing has changed between last year and this year.
Simpson shouldn’t be in the Wall of Fame because of his (both alleged and confirmed) crimes. That much is reasonable. But Buffalo said simply, “We have made an organizational decision that he is not a fit to display inside our new stadium and Family Circle.”
That’s a pretty vague statement! As Grant points out, just say it with your chest. Simpson isn’t on the new Wall of Fame because he very well may have gotten away with murder.
Every reasonable person agrees with that. If you believe that, as the Bills’ organization likely does, just come out and say it.
Otherwise, you end up in situations like this.