BET Awards Catching Heat After Featuring OJ Simpson In Their 'In Memoriam' Segment! WTF?!

O.J. Simpson may have died earlier this year, but he probably shouldn’t have been featured in any awards show ‘In Memoriam’ segments… just saying…

The BET Awards clearly didn’t heed that advice, tho! On Sunday night, during that show, producers prominently placed the former NFL player and one-time accused murderer of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in their “In Memoriam” segment! Yes, really!

It was a totally unexpected moment when his face came up during the hushed, mournful video. He was listed with the identifying description as “Former NFL Player,” which, yeah, he was that… and so much more, both famous AND infamous! Yeesh!

Per the Hollywood Reporter, a noticeable silence fell over the crowd as soon as O.J. was shown on screen. Perhaps everybody was just shocked that the producers actually put him up there?! We certainly are!!

OJ Simpson was featured in the "In Memoriam" section at the 2024 BET Awards. pic.twitter.com/JhHg0am8ZT

— CONSEQUENCE (@consequence) July 1, 2024

Of course, Simpson was a football star for the University of Southern California, and then in the NFL. After that, he appeared as an actor in many notable productions including the Naked Gun franchise. But it was his 1994 arrest and 1995 trial over the deaths of Brown Simpson and Goldman — a trial at which he was ultimately acquitted of murder — which looms largest. He then died back in April of this year at 76.

You can see just a few of the many reactions to this decision to put O.J. in the award show’s “In Memoriam” segment over on X (Twitter) from late Sunday night and early Monday morning:

“Um I don’t think that was a good idea…”

“BAD move @BET Really tone deaf. Bet all the women in the audience were INCENSED.”

“That was absolutely ridiculous.”

“‘Former NFL player’ oh, is that all?”

“Well that was a stupid move.”

“Sadly he was both famous and infamous!”

Wow!

Plenty of the other late luminaries featured in the segment had fully earned their place in that realm. The list included greats like Carl Weathers, Willie Mays, Richard Roundtree, Louis Gossett Jr., 2 Live Crew rapper Brother Marquis, Irish Grinstead, Dexter Scott King, Bill Cobbs, Maurice Hines, Clarence Avant, Ron Cephas Jones, and Rudolph Isley. But whoever thought to include O.J. among that group, too… well, they definitely took a chance! That’s for sure! And it’s definitely NOT something we would have done!! Just saying!