Is now the time to remove OJ Simpson from the wall of fame and HOF?

[ProcessYaDigg]

1 minute ago, Greg S said:

 

Yup. No disrespect to Eric Dickerson and his 2,105 yards in 1984 but the real single season rushing record is OJ's 2,003 yards in just 14 games in 1973.

Yup.  Give OJ two more games and no one for the rest of eternity will come close to a record that could've been.  2K yards in just 14 games is a feat that no one will ever accomplish again.

[QB Bills]

13 minutes ago, StHustle said:

It will always amaze me that people want action taken on a man found Not Guilty....not a hung jury...NOT GUILTY. You know what that means? ALL 12 JURORS VOTED NOT GUILTY. Yes 12 out of 12. How can you justify removing a man on the basis he did something that he proved he didnt? Whether he actually did it or not doesnt matter. You cant go assume he did based on some personal opinion or even the court of public opinion. He was found not guilty in a real court!!!

 

Attempting to take your stuff back from a bunch of scumbags in Vegas was illegal cause of how he did it but that crime isnt worthy of removal. Nobody was hurt and it was property that belonged (whether past or current at that time) to him. Any sensible person could understand his actions on that day minus the guns his friends brought.

 

OJ should always remain. He is a top 3 RB in history and best Bills RB ever. Thats what we celebrate. Are we really gonna have a lifetime disciplinary action system for players we put on the wall?

If you actually listened to any of those jurors, you'd see that they didn't pick the sharpest tools in the shed. Also, there was one black juror who said she declared him not guilty because he was "one of us" which I'm guessing was a sentiment shared by a few others on the panel. 

 

Having said that, there's no way the hatred of him would have been this bad if his wife wasn't a pretty white girl. Ray Lewis and Marvin Harrison killed other black people and are still celebrated to this day.

[MJS]

What does OJ have to do with today's "racial issues"? Just because he is black?

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

What on Earth does this have to do with race?

[Rico]

18 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

It's just that forehead tattoo.  Other than that, I ain't got no beef with him.

One of the first to take a public stand against white privilege. 

 

Helter Skelter is my fav book.

[ExWNYer]

2 hours ago, Greg S said:

Despite his reputation being in the toilet with everything that has happened after his football career, you can't deny he along with Bruce Smith are the two greatest (most talented) players to ever play for the Bills. If judged by only his playing career then he deserves to be in the HOF and remain on the Bills WOF. If he were removed I would completely understand. If OJ is allowed to remain in the HOF then why isn't Pete Rose in baseball's HOF. Pete gambled but his crimes were not nearly as serious as OJ's.

 

Apples to oranges. The MLB HOF has a morals clause which the Pro Football HOF does not. Agree or not, that is the reason that 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson and Pete Rose are not in their HOF. BTW, if Rose ever gets in, JJ needs to be elected, as well. JJ was exonerated and is still not in the HOF. Rose is not in because, although he admitted to gambling on baseball, he has yet to admit that he gambled on his own team. Regardless, comparing HOF entrants across sports is an exercise in futility.

[machine gun kelly]

31 minutes ago, Circlethewagon8404 said:

Yup.  Give OJ two more games and no one for the rest of eternity will come close to a record that could've been.  2K yards in just 14 games is a feat that no one will ever accomplish again.

Exactly!  Listen, I’m a moral person and whether convicted or not he things wrong, but then again Ray Lewis was accused of murder, but not convicted.  I’m not saying he did it, but an accusation is not a conviction.  I’m sure OJ was not a nice guy post football, but the Wall and HOF is about what happened on the field.  He had the most yards per game of any RB in the NFL which I proved in another thread.  You place someone on the Wall and HOF for their on field, not off field behaviors.

 

Think about it, he had more yards per game than the great Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Barry Sanders, AP, and could keep going. He is a stain on the community post football, but this isn’t about post football.  It’s about what he did on the field.

[Augie]

Remove? Keep? Yes? No? 

 

I can’t vote. I looked at the results and I don’t even know what they mean. I think I know what the intent was, but don’t make me guess. 

 

This is why I’m not an autograph or jersey guy. These are just people, some more flawed than others, and we have no idea to what degree. I’ll cheer for our guys on the field. I don’t know what they are like as people. 

[K-9]

34 minutes ago, Circlethewagon8404 said:

Yup.  Give OJ two more games and no one for the rest of eternity will come close to a record that could've been.  2K yards in just 14 games is a feat that no one will ever accomplish again.

I’ll never say never but it’s gonna be a challenge in today’s game to be sure. I won’t say never also because there have been a few really good 7 game stretches where RBs have run for 1,000+ yards. So never say never imo, but it’s up there with DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak as far as records in sports go. 

[apuszczalowski]

how is removing OJ from the Wall of Fame at the Stadium and the HOF going to help with racial harmony?

If anything, its more likely to do the opposite.....

[Malazan]

No. Not because he should be up there, but removing him just causes a lot more angst and attention. 

[hondo in seattle]

I think OJ just may be the greatest football player of all time.  In his prime – after Lou Saban unleashed him and before his knee injury – he was other worldly. 

 

1960 to 1979 was the “Golden Age of Running Backs.”    Today, QBs dominate the top of the draft but in those days it was RBs.  NFL teams were built around bell cow RBs, not franchise QBs.   So America’s best athletes became RBs.   Sports Illustrated splashed the covers of their mag with the best college and pro RBs.  And with all due respect to Jim Brown, the very best of them all might have been OJ.  On the gridiron, he looked like an Olympian god playing with mortals.    

 

It’s common these days to hear Brady described as the GOAT but OJ deserves a prominent place in that conversation.     If Brady is better than contemporaries like Brees and Rodgers, it’s not by a hell of a lot. 

 

But OJ was a man among boys.  In 1973, when he rushed for over 2,000 yards, the next best rushing total was 1,144.   OJ nearly doubled that prolific output.  Rushing yards could be hard to come by because in those days defenses were built to stop the run.  But OJ was gashing teams for 6.5 yards per carry. 

 

In 1973, the Bills didn’t have much of a passing offense, nor much of a defense.  OJ was the Bills only weapon.  So the game plan for each and every opponent was simple: Stop OJ.  They couldn’t do it. 

 

Having said all that, I think the SOB should be off the wall.  One of the things wrong with our country is we lionize the wrong people.  Often our kids’ heroes are rich, self-absorbed celebrities.  I think our country’s heroes ought to be folks that are mostly – if not perfectly – good roles models.    We should be lionizing teachers, fire fighters, (good) law enforcement officers, soldiers, sailors, civil rights activists, and social justice campaigners.

 

I love seeing Bob Kalsu’s name on the Wall of Fame.  He might not have been a great football player but he was a great American.  And then there’s Jack Kemp, who honorably served his community and his country after his football career.   And Cookie Gilchrist, who fought for the equal treatment of blacks during the era of segregation.   And Darryl Talley, who embodied effort and teamwork.  And the marvelous Marv Levy, who served in uniform during WWII. 

 

And then, up there with the rest of them, is OJ Simpson, murderer.   I wonder how the Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman feel when they see how in Buffalo we honor the most evil person in their collective lives.

 

Take him down.     

Edited June 9, 2020 by hondo in seattle

[BuffaloBillies]

13 minutes ago, Augie said:

Remove? Keep? Yes? No? 

 

I can’t vote. I looked at the results and I don’t even know what they mean. I think I know what the intent was, but don’t make me guess.

 

Vote no if yes, you think he should not be removed.

Vote yes if no, you don't think he should not be removed.

 

That ought to clear it up for you.

[Jauronimo]

4 hours ago, Beast said:

As we are trying to reach racial harmony, and statues, tweets, comments, you name it, are under the microscope....should OJ be taken down from the wall?

 

Should his bust be taken out of the HOF?

 

Discuss.

I don't think you could have been more off base if you tried.  

 

Comparing OJ's HoF bust to statues commemorating confederate generals or slave traders is asinine, for starters.  OJ isn't a symbol of oppression and institutional racism.  Hes a football player who allegedly murdered 2 people in a jealous rage.

 

The OJ Simpson trial was racially charged from the start following the Rodney King beating, the acquittal of 2 of the 3 officers involved, and the subsequent riots in LA.  The not guilty verdict for OJ was viewed as a win by many Americans after what they viewed as a miscarriage of justice in the King trial.  To this day, opinions on OJ's innocence differ significantly between black and white Americans, albeit not nearly as much as in 1995.

 

https://fivethirtyeight.com/videos/most-black-people-now-think-oj-simpson-was-guilty/

 

Using the George Floyd protests as an opportunity to remove OJ from the wall of fame and hall of fame in the name of justice is just dumb.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

3 hours ago, Gray Beard said:

Could they take a survey among season ticket holders for the wall?  I feel that a survey among the general public would probably overwhelmingly say to remove him, but I think people who actually go to games and have opinions on the issue from all sides should have a bigger voice in the decision. 

 

This seems like a point that has merit

[First Round Bust]

counter-point = was found not guilty by a jury of his peers hard to believe to this day; also served his time for whatever crimes he was found guilty of after that; 

[Doc Brown]

Removing his name would just make him angrier.  Nobody wants that.

[Beast]

Thank you Hapless for the tutorial on how to edit....sorry to all for the confusion.

[Real McClappy]

This is a trick question?

[Marv's Neighbor]

Removing the name won't change the circumstance.  Taking a name or statue down does not change anything.