The Bill Simmons Thread

deanx0

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Not only that, but ESPN is still the 800-lb gorilla in terms of the US sports sites and rights for properties, so as ugly as this divorce may have been, there's always the chance of them working together in the future (see KO), so it wouldn't be smart to decimate the worldwide leader...
 

JimBoSox9

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He's Bill Simmons, for fuck's sake, the most thin-skinned commentator on both coasts, and Skipper took his third child away from him in a manner one step up from security walking him out with a box.  There's no doubt in his mind he can thrive without the WWL.  He's going nuclear, at least once.
 

Kliq

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Simmons worked for ESPN for a long time, got a lot accomplished, achieved great recognition to the point that he has become probably the most well-known sports writer in the country. He probably feels that he accomplished as much as he could there, and now he is moving into a new gig, one that will allow him to venture into new things. I don't think he is the type of guy that concerns himself with burning bridges, and frankly, why should he? He clearly does not need ESPN anymore to have success and to make good money.
 
I don't really expect Simmons to just rip everyone apart. What I expect is for him to tell an honest recall of events that led to ESPN cutting him from his perspective.
 

jimbobim

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pappymojo said:
And to call them out on their bullshit.
He tweeted about loving Stewart's bullshit monologue last night and alluded to thinking he's not going away for long. They share a manager and both have done extraordinary things creatively in different fields and to different degrees. O'Leary was a guest on Stewarts show and bluntly said Stewart walked away from a 50 mill guarantee to stay. They impacted and dominated two vastly different fields so I don't know how they would collaborate, but the tweet made me think more on that subscription network rumor the terrible website Gawker put out earlier this summer. 
 
http://tktk.gawker.com/an-interesting-rumor-about-bill-simmons-and-jon-stewart-1709017542
 

TomBrunansky23

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One of his better podcasts in the last few months with the four letter was him by himself talking about how he came to be at ESPN in the first place. I geek out on the inside baseball stuff like that. I hope we get a one man exit interview as well.
 

DLew On Roids

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That was the only BS Report he did without a guest, though, so I doubt he does it again.  The PR would be terrible if he aimed one at ESPN, too--people would think he's whiny and vindictive.  
 
 
 
However, there is a 100% chance that he comes roaring out of the gates firing both barrels at Goodell as soon as his contract is over.  My bet would be he brings on someone with no NFL media affiliation like Aaron Schatz and asks him questions while just ripping into the league.
 

nattysez

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My expectations are way too high, but his first month at his new writing place (which is still TBD, as far as I know) could be a tour de force if he has it in him:
 
- multi-part rundown of NBA playoffs, possibly series-by-series
- multi-part rundown of NBA off-season
- team-by-team NBA preview
- takedown of Goodell 
- team-by-team NFL preview 
 
Of course, there's also a chance he's done writing.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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nattysez said:
My expectations are way too high, but his first month at his new writing place (which is still TBD, as far as I know) could be a tour de force if he has it in him:
 
- multi-part rundown of NBA playoffs, possibly series-by-series
- multi-part rundown of NBA off-season
- team-by-team NBA preview
- takedown of Goodell 
- team-by-team NFL preview 
 
Of course, there's also a chance he's done writing.
 
I don't think that Simmons is writing any of that. 
 
Like at all. 
 

PedroKsBambino

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I think a takedown of Goodell is quite possible; it's been a big chunk of his tweets recently and he's clearly both passionate about it and thinking about it.
 
I would not expect a lot of the rest, though...
 

deanx0

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PedroKsBambino said:
I think a takedown of Goodell is quite possible; it's been a big chunk of his tweets recently and he's clearly both passionate about it and thinking about it.
 
I would not expect a lot of the rest, though...
 
But I don't expect a written takedown of Goodell. I would expect a podcast, perhaps with Florio and Jenkins as guests.
 

Morning Woodhead

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I wonder if his web content is going to be through NBC.  I never remember him linking PFT like this in the past, and every article Florio writes, he retweets.  There is also the Michael Davies connection too. 
 

Number45forever

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Have I missed whether or not he'll start podcasting for the NFL season?  I know the HBO show won't start until 2016, but it would be really great to start hearing him do podcasts again as soon as the ESPN deal runs out.  In theory, there's very little that needs to be done as far a studio, etc. for just an audio podcast.  Personally, I'll miss the Cousin Sal pods during NFL season if those are gone (with Sal still being under the Disney umbrella, who knows).
 

nattysez

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Simmons just tweeted that he'll be back to podcasting on Oct. 1.  He implies that he and Cousin Sal will be working together again, but not until then.
 

ifmanis5

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nattysez said:
Simmons just tweeted that he'll be back to podcasting on Oct. 1.  He implies that he and Cousin Sal will be working together again, but not until then.
Great. I wonder how many conference calls it took to release Sal from Disney corpo grips for him to appear on a non-Disney podcast?
 

jimbobim

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  1. Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  11m11 minutes ago
    PS: Sorry to offend the Knicks and Nets fans that you don't have a top-3 most dysfunctional NBA organization... You were honorable mention.
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  2.  

    Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  12m12 minutes ago
    6. Three most dysfunctional NBA organizations right now are the Kings, Hornets and Clippers and I am not sure of the order... (Ok I'm done)
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  3.  

    Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  17m17 minutes ago
    5. And I'm gonna be interested to see which reporter jeopardizes their long-term access/connections to write the story... Cuz it's coming...
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  4.  

    Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  17m17 minutes ago
    4. The Clips organization has been as dysfunctional as ever - not just the team but especially off the court. It's a laundry list of things.
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  5.  

    Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  19m19 minutes ago
    3. Ballmer has shown ZERO evidence that he knows what he's doing. And it's been the best kept secret in the NBA for 15-16 months.
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  6.  

    Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  20m20 minutes ago
    2. With that said - since last summer, the Ballmer Clips have been just as much of disaster behind the scenes as the Sterling Clips were.
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  7.  

    Bill Simmons ‏@BillSimmons  21m21 minutes ago
    1. Steve Ballmer seems like a nice enough guy. Donald Sterling was one of the worst human being who ever owned a pro sports franchise.
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Kenny F'ing Powers

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I can't imagine his first show will be about ESPN. He's had some time to settle down. Simmons is all the things we know him to be (thin skinned, vindictive, etc), but I'm almost certain ESPN has some language in contracts about discussing being fired/behind the scenes ESPN stuff. When an entity can role out an army of lawyers, people tend to "do the right thing" and simply turn the other cheek. 
 
Now, in 2 years when ESPN numbers continue to fall and someone includes firing Bill Simmons as one of their mistakes, they will do what ESPN is known to do and leak shitty commentary about Simmons. In the moment, Bill will follow suit and do what he is known to do, which is open is big mouth.
 
Until then, I predict Simmons gives nothing more than 2-3 minutes of vanilla commentary about the whole situation.
 

Bleedred

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Kenny F'ing Powers said:
I can't imagine his first show will be about ESPN. He's had some time to settle down. Simmons is all the things we know him to be (thin skinned, vindictive, etc), but I'm almost certain ESPN has some language in contracts about discussing being fired/behind the scenes ESPN stuff. When an entity can role out an army of lawyers, people tend to "do the right thing" and simply turn the other cheek. 
 
Now, in 2 years when ESPN numbers continue to fall and someone includes firing Bill Simmons as one of their mistakes, they will do what ESPN is known to do and leak shitty commentary about Simmons. In the moment, Bill will follow suit and do what he is known to do, which is open is big mouth.
 
Until then, I predict Simmons gives nothing more than 2-3 minutes of vanilla commentary about the whole situation.
I agree with you that ESPN will not be his first target.  I think he'll be mostly positive about his new employer, talk about how excited he is to be given the creative freedom of HBO, and only tangentially knock ESPN.  Moreover, my guess is that Simmons had a "non-disparagement" clause in his ESPN contract which is likely still in effect.  Employment lawyers will know this better, but I've seen those clauses remain in place for as long as 1-3 years after the employee's departure.  If so, hopefully his vitriol will be focused on Roger Goodell, relentlessly, and not ESPN, which he can hold for later.  
 
Edit:  spelling
 

deanx0

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It wouldn't make sense from a marketing standpoint either. People will be excited to have him back and he'll get big numbers talking about the NFL, NBA, Karate Kid, Road Rules, or whatever.
 
If he was going to do a hit piece on ESPN (and I still doubt that will happen because his agreement probably has a non-disparagement clause), the smart thing would be to save it for a few months in when the number of listeners begins to stagnate or lag. Now passive-aggresive, snide little remarks? We'll get those from day 1.
 

dirtynine

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Simmons may have tons to say about ESPN down the line, but I have to imagine he's going to come out of the gate swinging hard at Goodell and the NFL. I would bet getting some clean shots in on the current state of the league is his priority 1.  
 

the1andonly3003

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And more recently, Apple showed interest in signing up former ESPN star Bill Simmons to an exclusive audio podcast deal. Apple media boss Eddy Cue discussed the idea a couple of times with Simmons this summer, say people familiar with the talks, who say that they were preliminary at best.
In July, Simmons ended up signing a “major exclusive multi-year, multi-platform agreement” with HBO; an HBO rep says that deal includes a podcast that should debut in October. It’s reasonable to assume that those podcasts will be available on Apple’s iTunes platform, as well as other outlets.
http://recode.net/2015/09/01/apples-interest-in-original-content-included-bill-simmons/
 
Simmons almost went to Apple
 

Leather

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I'm sure he (through his agent) discussed a deal with lots of folks.
 

JBill

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God bless Simmons and his Twitter account. I care not at all about how he is the Pats biggest homer, I need some big media name to counteract all this rehashed Spygate bs.
 

nattysez

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JBill said:
God bless Simmons and his Twitter account. I care not at all about how he is the Pats biggest homer, I need some big media name to counteract all this rehashed Spygate bs.
 
I came here to say exactly the same thing.  He and Ken Tremendous are saving my sanity. 
 

JBill

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nattysez said:
 
I came here to say exactly the same thing.  He and Ken Tremendous are saving my sanity. 
Good, because at least Ken Tremendous is safe from Deadspin's mockery. They've already taken Simmons apart.
 

TallManinOregon

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The thing about Billy doing a big ol' hatchet job on Goddell or the Shield is that HBO has a fairly snuggly business relationship with the NFL, too.
 
I am also fairly certain that there's all kinds of non-disclosure and non-disparagement language written into his contract and termination agreements with ESPN.
 
He'll risk losing substantial money and getting sued and all that nonsense, not to mention the opportunity to get under the skin of his new network execs, no matter how edgy that pay-for network can be, it will all circle back to the Benjamins... and Billy will not be doing his own investigative reporting, in all likelihood. So he'll be snarky and mildly audacious like we like him.
 

JimD

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Didn't his contract with ESPN end?  Is it common to have such a clause once the personality has fulfilled their obligations and have moved on to the next contract with someone else?
 

edmunddantes

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JimD said:
Didn't his contract with ESPN end?  Is it common to have such a clause once the personality has fulfilled their obligations and have moved on to the next contract with someone else?
Top Gear is a good example. Contracts not renewed, and they still had to deal with non-competes within Britain.
 
Thus they end up on Amazon Prime.
 

Alcohol&Overcalls

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JimD said:
Didn't his contract with ESPN end?  Is it common to have such a clause once the personality has fulfilled their obligations and have moved on to the next contract with someone else?
 
The contract really didn't lapse, though - it appears it was terminated, then a settlement to end the relationship was negotiated. Very likely, as part of that negotiation, that standard non-disclosure and non-disparagement language would get included from the ESPN side. 
 

semsox

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Bill just announced on instagram that he'll have a Guess the Lines podcast with Cousin Sal that will debut at 12:01 AM on October 1st with more details to come. I guess his contract officially ran through September, and will be off-the-hook as soon as October hits.
 

nattysez

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So is he going to run his podcast operation himself?  It seems like there should've been an announcement by now if he was doing podcasts in partnership with someone.  Or is this part of his HBO deal?
 

Eddie Jurak

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I hated those Guess the Lines podcasts. But I'll tune into this one in the hopes that the topic of Roger Goodell comes up
 

ifmanis5

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Chad Finn said:
Few more details on the podcast:
Nice details. However, petty is ESPN's middle name so I would expect them to be stingy with allowing Bristol talent on his podcast. We'll see.
I did love RG being identified as the guy who 'engineered the entire Deflategate debacle.' That was based and should be on his gravestone.
 

nattysez

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Chad Finn said:
Few more details on the podcast:
 
Chad - sorry if I'm being a dunce, but who's paying for the podcast, getting sponsors, etc.?  Is this something Simmons is doing himself, is it part of his HBO deal, or does he have a separate deal covering this (possibly as part of his presumed separate writing deal)?