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NFL: Why We Should Still Love ESPN’s Bill Simmons

By @DSchultz89

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Yesterday, ESPN announced that they had suspended popular media personality Bill Simmons for three weeks after comments he made about NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

Simmons went on a profanity-laced tirade during his weekly football podcast with Cousin Sal, where the two attempted to predict the gambling lines Las Vegas has for the upcoming NFL games that week. His comments included calling Goodell a “liar” for his response to the Ray Rice abuse scandal and his handling of it.

I totally understand both sides of this matter. ESPN cannot tolerate one of its employees accusing someone of being a liar without presenting any hard evidence. Simmons, being the master of speculation and “what if” scenarios, definitely overstepped his bounds. At the same time, I get why he said what he said, because I think his opinion represents a majority of what the public now feels about Goodell and the NFL.

There have already been many that have spoke out in support of Simmons, saying he had the right to speak his mind and after all, ESPN pays him for his opinions and analysis. But calling someone a liar on air is definitely not a light subject, especially when that someone is a commissioner of the NFL.

Personally, Bill Simmons is a hero of mine. I have read most of his work, as well as the two books he has written which are both fantastic (“Now I Can Die in Peace” and “The Book of Basketball”). I also listen to his podcasts “The B.S. Report,” as well as his Grantland affiliated publications too.

The reason I have written for sites like Bleacher Report and now Rant Sports is because of writers like Simmons, Zach Lowe and Marc Stein.

You see all the time on ESPN and other major sports networks when most of their analysts are former players that come and go throughout the years. Simmons is a rare exception because he is just an ordinary guy with a deep love of sports. His wicked sense of humor is not always captured as well in his podcasts or on TV as it is in his writing, which is always phenomenal.

I am 25 years old and have been graduated from college for over two years with a degree in Sport Management. While I have seen most of my friends elect to go for regular business jobs instead of sticking with sports, I have remained steadfast in working in sports, whether that be in a front office setting, or as a sportswriter.

If you have read Simmons’ writing, you should know by now that he spent most of his 20s as a bartender in Boston, and in his free time he wrote a couple sports columns while hoping he got hits on the site he created, BostonSportsGuy.com. Through hard work and dedication to his passion, he kept rising up the rankings, eventually getting hired by ESPN as a writer at the age of 31. He made the rare TV appearance once in a while, but mostly he remained behind the scenes as one of ESPN’s most popular writers.

Over the last five years, his career has really taken off, thanks mainly to his initiative in creating “Grantland” and becoming Editor-In-Chief for the popular sports and popular culture website. Now, he makes millions getting to write and talk about sports, and sometimes interviews celebrities on his podcasts.

Quite simply, his story is an inspiration to me as someone who wants to do what he does for a living. He is not a former professional athlete like we see so often on TV. He is just a regular Joe with a love of sports and he just so happens to be super opinionated on a lot of different subjects.

He may have been in the wrong in this particular case, but I hope he remains the same in terms of his unadulterated, genuine take on sports. That is why he has gained such a large audience over the years, and that is why he will only continue to get bigger as the years go on, which has to be encouraging for any sportswriter out there that can look to him as someone who broke through and is living their dream every day.

Dan Schultz is an NBA sports writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @dschultz89. “Like” him on Facebook and add him on Google.

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