American footballers are super athletes with fans across the globe. These professionals spend years of their lives training and honing their skills to meet the demands of the sports. While most of them retire joyfully and honorably, some throw their careers away by getting into trouble with the law. There have been many terrible cases over the years, but we will focus on four athletes who single-handedly ruined their careers.

O.J. Simpson 

Every criminal lawyer Indianapolis knows the bizarre case of O.J. Simpson. The infamous man was a talented professional footballer. He was a running back who got Hall of Fame recognition due to his impressive skills. However, his life drastically changed in 1994 when he faced accusations of killing his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman. During the trial, the prosecutors failed to establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, leading to his acquittal.

Following his acquittal, he penned the book If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer. He detailed the murders of his ex-wife and her friend but made it seem like a hypocritical situation. O.J. Simpson eventually spent nine years in prison for armed robbery until his release in 2017. 

Rae Carruth

From 1997 to 1999, Rae Carruth was a rising star in American football with Hall of Fame Potential. The wide receiver was one of the best talents of his time when he was playing with the Carolina Panthers. He secured the All-American honors in 1996 after playing professionally for one year. However, his career came to a dramatic end when Carruth paid a hitman to kill Cherica Adams, his pregnant girlfriend, over a domestic dispute. 

The hitman, Van Brett Watkins, broke into the house of Cherica Adams and shot her four times. Among other charges, the court convicted Rae Carruth of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. 2018 saw his release after serving eighteen years in prison.

Aaron Hernandez 

Aaron Hernandez is another talented footballer who sacrificed his life. The NFL drafted this gifted athlete in 2010 after he played college football from 2007 to 2009. Unfortunately, Hernandez's life took a tragic turn when he was convicted of killing Odin Lloyd, his close friend, in 2013. In 2017, he was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, throwing his talent and life away. Unable to live with the shame of what he did, Hernandez took his own life while serving his sentence.

Michael Vick

The last athlete on our list wasn't just careless and incredibly cruel. Michael Vick, the star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons in 2006, faced serious career damage when he was exposed for having a dog fighting ring. Vick was charged with animal cruelty and other crimes related to the activities of the ring. Despite his conviction, Vick only completed 18 months of his 23-month sentence. Following his conviction, the NFL suspended Vick for two years, and the Atlanta Falcons dropped him. After his release, he eventually joined another team, but the stain of his crimes ruined his reputation forever.

Conclusion

Being good at the job doesn't always mean you are a good person or above mistakes. The professionals on this list put themselves in difficult positions and threw their lives away despite their incredible talents.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the top 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists and consistently look to update them when necessary and based on necessity. As such, we are delighted to present our post-2023 revision of our top 50 Buffalo Bills.

As for all of our top 50 players in football, we look at the following:

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Football League.

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles that are not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, the Bills again made it to the playoffs but again fell short, having been knocked off by Kansas City in the second round.  The year gave us one new entrant and two elevations.

As always, we present our top five, which saw no changes:

1. Bruce Smith
2. Thurman Thomas
3. O.J. Simpson
4. Jim Kelly
5. Andre Reed

 

You can find the entire list here.

Quarterback Josh Allen rose to #22 from #30. 

Wide Receiver Stefon Diggs rocketed to #29 from #45.  He is now with the Houston Texans.

The only new entrant is three-time Offensive Tackle Dion Dawkins, who first appears at #39.

Notably, Tremaine Edmunds has been dropped off the list.

We thank you for your continued support of our lists on Notinhalloffame.com.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present our post 2022 revision of our top 50 Buffalo Bills.

As for all of our top 50 players in football we look at the following:

1. Advanced Statistics.

2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Football League.

3. Playoff accomplishments.

4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Last year, Buffalo made it into the playoffs, making it to the second round. 2022 yielded one new entrant to the Top 50, and one elevation.

As always, we present our top five, which had no changes.

1. Bruce Smith

2. Thurman Thomas

3. O.J. Simpson

4. Jim Kelly

5. Andre Reed

You can find the entire list here.

Quarterback, Josh Allen, vaults eight spots to #30. This was the second year in a row that he led the NFL in Approximate Value.

The lone debut is Wide Receiver, Stefon Diggs, who enters at #45. He has been a Pro Bowler all three of his Bills campaigns.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present the second revision of our top 50 Buffalo Bills of all-time.

As for all of our top 50 players in football we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Football League. 

3. Playoff accomplishments.

4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

This one went a complete overhaul, which was reflected in our top five as seen below.

The complete list can be found here, but as always we announce our top five in this article.  They are:

1. Bruce Smith

2. Thurman Thomas

3. O.J. Simpson

4. Bart Starr

5. Andre Reed

O.J. Simpson moved up from #5, which moved Jim Kelly and Andre Reed down one spot.

We had a colossal error in that former Fullback, Cookie Gilchrist was omitted from our first list.  He appears at #16.  

Former Running Back, Joe Cribbs also should have been on our initial top 50.  He enters at #34.  Another Running Back, LeSean McCoy debuts at #39. 

The other additions are Defensive End, Mario Williams (#44), Linebacker, Bryce Paup (#45), Linebacker, John Tracey (#46) and Defensive Tackle, Marcell Dareus (#48).

We welcome your input and commentsand as always, we thank you for your support.

Regular visitors to Notinhalloffame.com might have noticed that we have been working on the top fifty players of each North American franchise.  We are continuing this with the look at our second NFL franchise, the Buffalo Bills.

The Buffalo Bills are the only team in NFL history to make the Super Bowl four times.  Granted, the team from Western New York lost on all four occasions but over time the accomplishments involved to get there are celebrated more and more.

At present, this list reflects accomplishments up to the end of the 2015 season.

The list is based on traditional metrics advanced metrics, length of service, popularity, and post season performance.

The complete list can be found here, but for those who are curious immediately as to who the top five are, we’ll grant that immediately:



1. Bruce Smith

2. Thurman Thomas

3. Jim Kelly

4. Andre Reed

5. O.J. Simpson


Which team are we working on next?

We will turn our attention to the diamond and the Washington Nationals.

While the first three years of O.J. Simpson’s professional career was basically average, he would explode the next five seasons where he would explode for five consecutive First Team All-Pro nods as well as four Rushing Titles.   One of those titles included becoming the first Running Back in NFL history to rush for over 2,000 yards in a season.