Bill Simmons vs ESPN vs Roger Goodell

[Mr. Scot]

Pretty wild story going on here...

 

Bill Simmons goes all in against Roger Goodell

 

“Goodell, if he didn’t know what was on that tape, he’s a liar,” Simmons said Monday on his podcast, via Mediaite.com.  “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 later reiterated his belief that Goodell is a liar, and then Simmons dared ESPN to tell him to tone it down.

“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.”

 

With so many voices so aggressively attacking Goodell and the Ravens, ESPN seems to be daring the league to retaliate.  Which has prompted some in the media to wonder whether, if Goodell ultimately survives, he’ll hold a grudge against the network that once canceled Playmakers at the insistence of his predecessor.  (The league thought Playmakers unfairly depicted pro football players . . . and the story lines from the last two weeks would have been rejected at the time as way too far fetched.)

On one hand, it would be easier at this point for Goodell to list those who haven’t called him out in the last two weeks.  On the other hand, ESPN has been the loudest and the most blunt in its attacks on the Commissioner.

 

 

Bill Simmons provokes ESPN to suspend him, they oblige

 

ESPN pontificator Bill Simmons called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a liar, and dared his bosses to call him on it.

So they did.

ESPN put out a statement saying Simmons was suspended three weeks for his profane tirade against Goodell.

“Every employee must be accountable to ESPN and those engaged in our editorial operations must also operate within ESPN’s journalistic standards,” the statement read. “We have worked hard to ensure that our recent NFL coverage has met that criteria. Bill Simmons did not meet those obligations in a recent podcast, and as a result we have suspended him for three weeks.”

 

But it’s increasingly obvious that the four-letter network is willing to listen to criticism, after some holes were poked in their investigation of the Ray Rice suspension.

Considering Stephen A. Smith only got a week off for suggesting that domestic violence victims shouldn’t provoke men, it’s obvious where their priorities lie.

 

 

Report: Simmons suspended more for calling out ESPN than Goodell

 

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.

 

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.

[Anybodyhome]

Proving once again that the NFL is far more important than an employee's opinions.

On the other hand, simply rephrasing his comments would have been a wiser decision. But it is a 3 week paid vacation.

[Mr. Scot]

The stories here didn't confirm if his suspension was paid or unpaid.  Haven't seen another source (haven't really looked) so don't know.

 

Of course you could argue that being paid to talk about sports is, in itself, a permanent vacation.