Doug Zeigler is outraged: ESPN’s suspension of Simmons for *gasp* criticizing Roger Goodell and the NFL is longer than Goodell’s original suspension of Ray Rice!
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Bill Simmons is a sports writer who gets paid for sharing his opinion. Whether it’s voicing his disdain for his beloved Celtics former head coach, Doc Rivers, for, as he saw it, quitting on his team, or defending the Patriots for questionable personnel changes, or his annual (and hilarious) NBA draft running diary, Bill Simmons has worked for ESPN for years largely for two reasons: he’s opinionated, and he’s gifted at writing and sharing those opinions, usually with a snarky bent.
Bill Simmons has critiqued and mocked a wide variety of sports figures in his years at ESPN and before that when he was simply “The Boston Sports Guy”. On Monday he was recording his regular weekly podcast with Cousin Sal (of Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel fame) where they try to guess the gambling lines for each NFL game that week.
On the heels of a hard-hitting ESPN Outside The Lines report that questioned the actions of the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell’s own underwhelming press conference, Simmons took a moment to comment. Simmons said that Goodell was a liar and that he knew about the elevator video which showed Ray Rice punching and knocking unconscious his fiancé before it was released by TMZ. He punctuated the statement with “if you hooked that guy up to a lie detector test, he would fail,” and went on to say that “For all these people to pretend they didn’t know is such [expletive]ing [BS]. It really is, it’s such [expletive]ing [BS]. For him to go into that press conference and pretend otherwise … I was so insulted.”
Simmons closed by saying that “I really hope someone calls me or emails me and says I’m in trouble for anything I say about Roger Goodell. If one person says that to me, I’m going public. You leave me alone. The commissioner is a liar, and I get to talk about that on my podcast. Please, call me and say I’m in trouble, I dare you.”
Well, he got his wish.
ESPN suspended Bill Simmons for 3 weeks, 1 week LONGER than Ray Rice’s initial suspension for cold-cocking a woman. (It should be noted the NFL changed the suspension to indefinite after the elevator footage was released publicly). Let that soak in a bit: a man who gets paid to express his opinion got a longer suspension that a professional athlete got for assaulting the woman he was to wed. For doing his job.
Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of people incredulous over the suspension:
THIS. RT @howeaboutsports Hit a joint: 1 year. Hit a spouse: 2 weeks. Hit nail on the head: 3 weeks. @BillSimmons #FreeBillSimmons #fb
— Tamiko Jonson (@turdelini) September 25, 2014
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Why would ESPN do that? Considering that Simmons has said much worse things about NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, like calling him the “worst commissioner in sports history” multiple times, why would they issue such a severe punishment? This isn’t even the first time Simmons has criticized Goodell harshly. Back on October 20th, 2012, he openly wondered if Goodell was wearing the “Most Dangerously Incompetent Commissioner in Sports” championship belt. So why now? Why was this criticism requiring a heavy handed suspension? Why is it so important that Simmons’ strong opinion (which, incidentally is shared by many of us) is squelched.
The short answer: Money.
ESPN’s new contract extension with the NFL began this year. The NFL is a massive cash cow for them. The league has had cavalcade of public relations black eyes recently, with child abuse charges, domestic abuse arrests, and countless drug and alcohol issues with players (and even an owner, Colts Jim Irsay). ESPN is tied to the NFL, intertwined, even, so they need to protect their investment by making sure everyone in the fold of their organization is talking the company line. Millions upon millions of dollars are at stake, and when two very popular forces like ESPN and the NFL are in bed together, they want to keep all their nasty tidbits behind closed doors.
Bill Simmons cracked that door a bit, and they swiftly and coldly punished him and slammed the door shut again. This on the heels of ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” show releasing a report demonstrating how the Ravens and the NFL both tried to cover up the Ray Rice incident. Simmons wasn’t really breaking new ground here; he was applying a label, albeit with some profanity involved.
ESPN released this statement regarding Simmons’ suspension: “Every employee must be accountable to ESPN and those engaged in our editorial operations must also operate within ESPN’s journalistic standards. 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.” So they suspended a writer who they hired to share his opinions for voicing his opinion. It seems that ESPN has shown what matters to them: Profit and solidarity to corporate bedfellows over freedom to express an opinion.
Some might find the old adage “Don’t bit the hand that feeds you” to be applicable here. But what if that same hand had beckoned you over and over again, rewarding you each time with a delicious morsel, then suddenly smacked you and yelled at you for the very behavior they always rewarded you for? I would be bewildered and angry.
I do not know Mr. Simmons, but I’m left wondering if he feels wronged. We writers are a jealous lot, especially about our right to say what we think and feel. ESPN just robbed Bill Simmons of that.
I hope I am never squelched for having an opinion. I hope the Mr. Simmons makes it back across that border of exile. I hope he writes and talks freely with his guests and friends. I hope.
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(Photo Credit: Associated Press/Don Juan Moore)