In a Halloween surprise, former Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame running back O.J. Simpson came to watch the Bills beat the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.
“Juice! Your old stomping grounds,” a man can be heard saying in a video as 74-year-old Simpson met fans at the Big Tree Inn in Orchard Park before the start of the game Sunday. Fans seemed delighted to take pictures with and speak to the former player.
“Guess what?” Simpson said in a video posted to his Twitter page. “My Bills gonna kick your butts today, I think!”
Simpson spoke from a suite in Highmark Stadium, where he is a member of the team’s Wall of Fame, saying, “Hi Twitter world. Its yours truly at one of my favorite places. We called it Rich Stadium back then,” Simpson said, then continued:
Hard to believe it was like 48 years ago that we opened this stadium. It was my 5th year in the league, and it was a year that I gained 2,000 yards in 14 games. As a team we went over 3,000 yards. It was an NFL record. And…I gotta add…it was only in 14 games back then. Well, they’re playing the Miami Dolphins…my Bills. When I was in Buffalo, my rookie year we beat the Dolphins, and never beat them again. Eight more years, we played them twice a year, and never won.
“Now they’re talking about building a new stadium,” Simpson said. “That tells me I’m getting really old. But, today I’m here to watch my Buffalo Bills kick some butt! I’m just saying.”
The Bills beat Miami 26-11.
Simpson, a former broadcaster and actor as well as football player, was tried for the 1994 murders of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman in a case that gained national attention. Simpson was acquitted of the murders in criminal court, but was later found responsible for both deaths in a civil trial. In 2007, Simpson was imprisoned for armed robbery and kidnapping in a different case, and served nine years. Simpson was released October 1, 2017.