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Roger, Roger, Roger
This week NFL teams hold their “voluntary” Organized Team Activities(OTA’s). The NFLPA’s bargaining agreement with the NFL insisted that the three day non cntact camps be voluntary. Don’t miss one though like Antonio Brown is choosing to do in Oakland where his new team hoped his controversial self wouldn’t follow him from the right to the left coast. If you do, you’re big news for at least 48 hours being labeled anything from a disruption to a malcontent.
At least you wouldn’t be labeled as a convicted spousal abuser, convicted and imprisoned aggravated robber, and acquitted as a suspect in a double homicide. That honor belongs to Orenthal James Simpson, aka OJ, aka The Juice.
There were no OTA’s the last time OJ wore number 32 on his Buffalo Bills jersey way back in 1977. Then again, there has been no one to wear number 32 in Buffalo since 1977 either. That is until yesterday when Senorise Perry, one of seven running backs attempting to make the roster, wore it at the Bills’ day one OTA.
The Bills decided to retire number 34 in honor of running back Thurman Thomas and did so last October. Number 32? They decided to put it into moth balls from 1977 to 2019. OJ’s name remains on their office walls as inducted into the Bills’ Hall of Fame. His jersey number was never retired. And now, 42 years after it was last worn, it’s being worn again.
Why now? Why not? It’s anyone’s guess we suppose. It’s really a no win for Buffalo. Or is it a loss?
With the very image conscious NFL taking hits left and right for stumbling through the mishandling of domestic abuse and outright assault, subsequenst penalties, suspensions, or bans why now? Why ever?
In the early nineties OJ was arrested, tried, and acquitted of double murder. In the early nineties the Bills went to four straight Super Bowls and lost all four. The only time either OJ or the Bills have been in the news since, the news has been about a bad actor or a bad team.
There is no upside to bringing back number 32. No one on the field wearing 32 will ever be as good as Juice on the field. No one off of the field will ever be as bad. The number should have been retired, without being retired, forever.
Can you picture a pink 32 Bills jersey in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month?
Roger, if your officials couldn’t throw a pass interference flag on the Rams in the NFC Championship game, maybe at least your public relations team could have thrown one on the stupidity of the Bills’ front office.
Comment section
Engage. Enrage. Enjoy.
Sounds like a job for Terry Bradshaw. You know, a little sensitivity training then an interview with Roger only to be told that no one cares and why we shouldn’t worry about it. All while handing out suspensions for caught on camera cameos of roid rage against the opposite sex or mothers of their children.
Heck, lets even go one step further and do a remake of candid camera! The sports version, athletes and coaches only. Plenty of content and not enough airtime to go around. Where’s Art Linkletter when we need him most?
It’s Hump day. You are the leader in the clubhouse for comment of the week. Art Linkletter and Terry Bradshaw together for the first time. Fabulous!
Can Senorise Perry knife through the defense like The Juice?
What a cut throat comment, you savage.
I wonder if wearing #32 at OTAs means Senorise is more likely to make the team or more likely to be accused of a crime? The question is, will the glove fit?
He’s +500 on making the team. On commission of crimes there is no line in Vegas. They are sensitive to this as OJ’s armed shakedown took place in Sin City.
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