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Report: Simmons suspended more for calling out ESPN than Goodell
Posted by Mike Florio on September 25, 2014
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The reaction to ESPN’s reaction to Bill Simmons’ reaction to Roger Goodell’s reaction to
Ray Rice’s reaction to his then-fiancée has continued through Wednesday night and into Thursday morning. Simmons is being praised for calling out Goodell, and ESPN is being criticized for kowtowing to 345 Park Avenue.
It’s a great narrative. It would be even better if it were, you know, accurate.
According to John Ourand of
SportsBusiness Daily, Simmons’ three-week suspension arose more from his decision to dare ESPN executives to take action than from his profane remarks about Goodell. Ourand also reports that the NFL didn’t call ESPN to complain about Simmons.
“Goodell, if he didn’t know what was on that tape, he’s a liar,” Simmons said regarding Goodell in a Monday press conference. “I’m just saying it. He is lying. I think that dude is lying. If you put him up on a lie detector test that guy would fail. For all these people to pretend they didn’t know is such f–king bullsh-t. It really is. It’s such f–king bullsh-t. And for him to go in that press conference and pretend otherwise, I was so insulted. I really was.”
Simmons then provoked ESPN to do something about it.
“I really hope somebody calls me or emails me and says I’m in trouble for anything I say about Roger Goodell,” Simmons said. “Because if one person says that to me, I’m going public. You leave me alone. The Commissioner’s a liar and I get to talk about that on my podcast. . . . Please, call me and say I’m in trouble. I dare you.”
Now that ESPN has accepted the dare, the question becomes whether Simmons will indeed “go public.” Simmons’ self-crafted-and-ESPN-enabled image that he’s untouchable currently stands at a crossroads. If he says nothing, his wings have indeed been clipped. If he speaks out (as he vowed to do), then he’s still the guy who cajoled upper management into letting him say and do whatever he wants, regardless of how any other ESPN employee reacts to an environment in which one standard applies to Simmons, and another standard applies to pretty much everyone else not named Chris Berman.
If Simmons really is what he has portrayed himself to be, the situation will escalate until ESPN backs down or Simmons walks out. The problem for Simmons is that, even if he lands elsewhere (and he surely would), the platform wouldn’t be as big and his autonomy wouldn’t be as great.
Even if his autonomy suddenly isn’t as great as he thought it was.