Yesterday, I spent too much time reading the Hollywood Reporter’s cover story on Bill Simmons. Simmons was once one of the most powerful sports writers in America, a “bro whisperer” and major force on ESPN. I knew of Simmons mostly from his now-defunct but once-excellent site Grantland. Well, Simmons had a huge falling out with ESPN last year over the NFL and Roger Goodell. Following that, Simmons was dumped by ESPN and Grantland was shuttered. Simmons has a new show on HBO debuting June 22, so to promote the show, Simmons gave a comprehensive, bitchy and gossipy interview to THR. Then within hours of the interview going wide, Simmons issued an apology for all the sh-t he talked in the interview. This is his M.O. at this point – sh-t talk and apologize, sh-t talk and apologize and on and on. You can read the full THR piece here, and here are some highlights:
On the exodus of talent from ESPN: “They’ve [ESPN] now gotten rid of everybody who is a little off the beaten path. Ask yourself this: ‘Who would work there that you respect right now?'”
The people at ESPN trying to get him fired: “[Those people] were just trying to cause trouble. It was f—ing high school.”
Being blindsided by his firing: “It was f—ing shitty. By the way they handled it, you would think I played grab-ass with some makeup assistant or something.”
His reflections after a year: “I’m not blameless. I acted like a brat a couple times, and there are things I could have handled better.”
His feminism: His daughter Zoe Simmons is 11-year-old and a natural athlete. “One of the ironies of my life is that I was definitely a chauvinist with men’s and women’s sports before. I’d always make WNBA jokes and stuff like that. And now I’m like a feminist, and it’s all because of her,” he says, as his ponytailed daughter waves at him between plays. “In L.A., they have all these academy teams for boys, and the girls are treated like second-class citizens. The fields we have are worse than the boys’, too. It all just drives me f—ing crazy.”
His dream interview is Michelle Obama: He spins through his wish list for Any Given Wednesday guests, awarding the top spot to Michelle Obama in part because girls’ sports is a subject he’d love to dive into with her. “I couldn’t get her on my podcast, but maybe I could get her on this because it’s HBO.”
THR acknowledges at several points that what went down between Simmons and the ESPN brass was immature boy drama for the most part, and I guess I’m still mystified as to how bad-mouthing Roger Goodell would get ANYONE fired. Yes, ESPN had corporate interests with the NFL, but Goodell is universally criticized by many different people for many different reasons. As for Simmons’ late-in-life conversion to feminism because he wants his daughter to have the same opportunities as boys… I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. But wouldn’t it be amazing if there wasn’t so much toxic bro culture in sports, and wouldn’t it be amazing if it didn’t take “having a daughter” for men to realize that women and girls get the short end of the stick all the time?
Photos courtesy of WENN, THR.
“wouldn’t it be amazing if there wasn’t so much toxic bro culture in sports, ”
It would. But given that there is I don’t know why women (or men who claim to be feminists) are interested in them. The bro dominated ones anyway.
why wouldnt women be interested in them? the sport itself has nothing to do with it and even if they are douchebags they are all still pretty hot, why do you think there are so many groupies in all the big sports? you dont have to marry those guys, you know.
My feelings exactly. You don’t have to be so reactionary to shut the whole idea of professional sports down.
When did we become a society that if we cannot tolerate an aspect of a person, activity or culture that we cannot tolerate it at all?
Said self professed sportshead. Perhaps I’m a sports bro. What’s the female equivalent? I love to cheer for my team and there is really only 1 or 2 teams out of all the sports that I watch that I really irrationally dislike (um hello dodgers) but I don’t need to sh*t on their fans.
Better late than never I suppose, maybe he can talk to some of his old “bros” about it too
The issue with Goodell and ESPN is that over the last three years ESPN has basically acted like Goodell’s private PR firm, going so far as to publish/broadcast false information that could be easily rebutted. This reached its peak with Deflategate. ESPN issued false information, on behalf of Goodell, about the findings of the football measurements, claiming the Colts balls were within league rules, they were not, and all the Patriots footballs were underinflated, they were not either – in fact, only one really was and that was the one the Colts equipment manager had had for five minutes by himself. Other news outlets went with the false information initially too but later corrected it as the truth got out. ESPN held fast and continued to lie on behalf of Goodell. That caused the rift with Simmons, a Pats fan.
The Goodell episode may’ve been the straw that broke the camels back but much has been written about Simmons being an entitled pain in the ass who had many many dust ups with ESPN and others. I’m not defending ESPN on anything they do, but Simmons is a jerk. You can see it in his writing and every time he opens his mouth. By all accounts he is good at assembling talent and managing that talent as evidenced by Grantland (although Grantland was not profitable for ESPN) and he was one of (not the only, but one of) the driving forces behind 30 for 30, but he is arrogant, misogynistic and condescending. Talented in facilitating entertainment, yes. As a writer and analyst, not so much. And not nearly as talented as he think he is.
You can say that Grantland wasn’t profitable and that’s true, but it also engendered lots of good will from fans. And ESPN desperately needs goodwill. In any event, he was totally right about Goodell and Ray Rice, which seemed to be the first public issue anyways. The whole banning him from tweeting thing was ridiculous.
ESPN also shut down Grantland, especially after a bunch of them left to work with Simmons at his new site.
@Amanda: Just a few examples. The history of dust ups was long, most of which were caused by Simmons wanting to be bigger than he really was. There are more examples. As I said before, I’m not defending Goodell or ESPN, but there’s a long history there of Simmons acting like a prima donna and a jerk. . http://awfulannouncing.com/2015/the-8-moments-that-led-to-the-bill-simmons-espn-divorce.html
ESPN has been on the downslide for years. They’re just way too beholden to corporate interests. The only thing of quality they produce anymore is 30 for 30.
Though I really hated Grantland, and while I’m sad to see writers out of work, I don’t miss the site.
Yeah, I hate that it takes these kinds of men having a daughter to realize how miserably unfair things are for women – but I mean – for their daughters sake, at least they’ve realized. It’s bittersweet.
It is but I’ll take it. I should set the bar higher and if I were his wife, I’d be p*ssed that apparently my husband only now respects women after he had a daughter. However, there are those who NEVER come around. Nobody likes admitting they were a douche before. Again, I’ll take it.
Erinn that statement sums up EVERYTHING. I could not concur more.
“Wouldn’t it be amazing if it didn’t take ‘having a daughter’ for men to realize that women and girls get the short end of the stick all the time?” Yup.
For those actually paying attention, what went down last year with the NFL’s treatment of Tom Brady and the Patriots is disgusting and the very definition of corrupt. The NFL (and its TV rights) is a billion dollar industry that ESPN is a part of and helps control and filter the info. It’s corrupt system that Bill S. shined a light on. ESPN was always going to fire someone who didn’t stick to the corporate talking points.
I agree, it shouldn’t take having a daughter to change their opinion. They have mothers, possibly sisters and aunts and also female friends, colleagues…
sigh
And furthermore : ) it shouldn’t take being related to women (which all people are) to endorse and work for fairness and equal treatment because they’re the right thing to do.
caring about your own daughter is hardly being a feminist.
Yes, because it concerns MY daughter, an extension of me, therefore SPECIAL AND UNIQUELY GIFTED, I care. Yeah, no, he’s no “feminist”.
It wasn’t just criticizing Goodell. I like Simmons but he was a pain in ESPNs ass for a long time. That was just the straw that broke the camels back.
Yeah … I used to work at ESPN and Simmons was not loved by anybody there. The diva tantrums were legendary. I saw the e-mails he sent bitching out editors for changing a period to a semicolon; I know a girl he actually made cry. He’s a d-bag.
If you want to call yourself “kind of a feminist now”, maybe don’t refer to inappropriately touching a subordinate employee as “playing grab ass”.
Thank you! That’s what I was going to say…only less succinctly, so I’m glad you already said it perfectly.
Bill Simmons is an asshole.
Yep I have always hated him. He has always been a condescending d-bag of epic proportions.
As if going on HBO is going to get him Michelle Obama. He seems really shallow.
Considering his website, podcasts and HBO show involve a lot of young talent, including women, talking about sports, something that most major sports networks don’t do, I don’t think it is fair to just make a blanket statement like that. He has also been a supporter of Katie Nolan, who isn’t even on HBO or ESPN, who is developing her career doing a sports show / pop culture show.
Someone who is actually supporting women in a male dominated industry and calls himself a feminist isn’t someone who should be discounted because he wasn’t perfect.
Besides he didn’t say he was against women’s rights before his daughter was born, just that he was insensitive to the issues relating to women’s sports, like the WNBA.
I listen to his podcasts and it’s not like he is Howard Stern creeping on the women.
And when he was going after Goodell in the Rice incident, he was calling out the hypocrisy of the NFL punishing him so little for obvious domestic abuse, when Goodell pretended that he only knew how serious it was when the elevator video was released to the public.
Is he arrogant? Sure. But if we are going to shit on anyone who doesn’t have a perfect record on feminist issues, then there won’t be many allies left.
This^^
^ 100000% THIS. I urge everyone to take a listen to any of Simmons podcasts and just hear him speak. He’s a great conversationalist with an insane amount of information in his brain. He’s also surprisingly open minded for a “sports-bro” or whatever people who like to insult him call him.
I used to read his columns and whenever he mentioned his wife, it always seemed to be with a great deal of respect.
I used to love reading Bill Simmons’ work, and I also enjoyed his NBA telecast stuff. However I am very saddened at his approach to women and girls athletics. That it took him having a daughter to realize the inequalities is pretty sad. I wonder what his wife thinks about all of this? Perhaps his lack of “pants wearing” at home drove his outwardly sexist behavior in his column and on grantland? Who knows.
I’m on team. “It sucks that you have to have a daughter to become a feminist but grateful that at least you woke up some point in your life”.
That said, I read this article and I have worked for men like him. They are sort of oblivious to how they are received by people. At times they don’t care if you tell them, “Um I don’t think so so appreciated that kind of treatment …” if they know they didn’t meant to be offensive and are moving towards what they consider a productive/profitable clean end goal.
I think a lot of people struggle to have true empathy and see things in a different perspective without having something or someone put them in that position — until they have their own personal cause to advocate for.
It can break your heart when you hear someone say they don’t “believe” in the gay life style but then reaffirm your faith in humanity when those same people have their own “come to jesus” moment when their child comes out. The struggle may not be over but I’m glad there is some kind of understanding acceptance and a chance for full one.
His comments abt his daughter and feminism remind me of politicians who used to be anti-gay until they have a family member who is LBGTQ. Only when an issue touches them personally do they realize that discrimination is bad.
Rather than, you know, considering that they are lawmakers and should consider how laws they support discriminate against their constituents.
I miss Grantland.