ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons

[Sgt. Largent]

Actually, Bill Simmons, you don't get to say that on your podcast without punishment from your employer.

Well deserved suspension. I also respect what he's saying, but the suspension is just.

Walk me through your reasoning.

Bill Simmons is a writer who's primary job for ESPN is to write editorial opinion pieces on the goings on in the NFL.

ESPN suspended him for no other reason than they don't want to poke their golden goose with sharp sticks, because Simmons said nothing that every other journalist and media type said about Goodell's handling of the Ray Rice case, other than actually using the word "liar" instead of other less inflammatory gutless words like others.

 

[Hawkspur]

http://thebiglead.com/2014/09/25/bill-s ... is-pissed/

An interesting take here, that ESPN's president is furious with Simmons as he feels that the Network, through the OTL report and other stories, was leading the way in challenging Goodell and that Simmons was not only late to the 'Goodell's a liar' party but that as such he was out of line insinuating that ESPN were on Goodell's side with this and misrepresenting the company in a challenging and aggressive manner.

If this story is correct, and it sounds entirely plausible to me, it may wellhave been more effective to make Simmons read a statement in his next podcast or put a paragraph on the Grantland website pointing out some of ESPN's good workon this, but if they didn't want to do this or were simply angry enough then the suspension is justified.

 

[rastahawk]

I like the BS Report, I listen to it weekly. I was listening to that podcast and thought wow he's really fired up about it. Then I wondered if what he said will have any consequences. When he called out Roger and basically said he was lying about the whole thing, you can't say that because journalistic integrity tells us that you can't make wholesale assumptions about something and present that as fact. But on the flip side the BS Report is a light hearted opinion piece really. I mean he calls Carson Palmer, Matt Shaub, and Ryan Fitzpatrick garbage regularly (agree wholeheartedly btw) and that doesn't seem like a big deal. Anyhow its pretty clear how powerful the NFL is, they can't even be insulted!

 

[Hawkspur]

I like the BS Report, I listen to it weekly. I was listening to that podcast and thought wow he's really fired up about it. Then I wondered if what he said will have any consequences. When he called out Roger and basically said he was lying about the whole thing, you can't say that because journalistic integrity tells us that you can't make wholesale assumptions about something and present that as fact. But on the flip side the BS Report is a light hearted opinion piece really. I mean he calls Carson Palmer, Matt Shaub, and Ryan Fitzpatrick garbage regularly (agree wholeheartedly btw) and that doesn't seem like a big deal. Anyhow its pretty clear how powerful the NFL is, they can't even be insulted!

Have a read through the piece I linked above. It surmises that the suspension was about offending ESPN and not Goodell or the NFL. Makes a lot more sense to me than suspending him for slagging off Goodell when literally dozens of people, many of whom work for ESPN have done the same and gone unpunished.

Also, just a thought, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility that the ESPN president might not consider Goodell to be the right person for the job. The network's stance hasn't seemed to me to be very supportive of Goodell through all this.