When the Buffalo Bills announced recently that they weren’t going to honor O.J. Simpson in their new stadium, it created quite a controversy.
Many fans said the best player in the team’s history and the first to have his name and number on the team’s Wall of Honor should still be honored at the new stadium even though he was found responsible in a civil trial for murdering his wife and a waiter who came to her home to give her a pair of glasses she left behind. He later served nine years in prison in an unrelated armed robbery and kidnapping case in Las Vegas. The Bills did not take his name down in the old stadium, and he remains honored in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.
I can see both sides of the argument, but I do think the Bills mishandled the situation. First, I think they should have had a vote of the season ticket holders to see if the fans wanted him honored.
I also was surprised that they are not going to honor the players on a new Wall of Honor in the new stadium. Instead, they will have plaques in front of the stadium near three statues of bison on what they are calling the Family Circle.
I think this is the wrong way to do it. When they designed the stadium, they should have created room for some kind of team history museum.
They could have had plaques of the other players currently on the Wall of Honor and then some sort of the history of the team. Maybe a history of each decade. That way they could mention O.J. in the 1970s without erasing him from their history.
Or they could have two sets of plaques. One for Bills enshrined in Hall of Fame and one for Bills honored by the team. Then they could just say they are acknowledging he is in the Hall of Fame.
The Bills could have found a better way to decide whether to mention O.J. and how to do it.
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