Bill Simmons went off on Roger Goodell earlier this week and dared ESPN to reprimand him for it. He got what he asked for without even having to issue a double dare.
ESPN announced on Wednesday that Simmons has been suspended three weeks for not meeting the network’s criteria for “journalistic standards.”
“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,” the World Wide Leader said in a statement. “Bill Simmons did not meet those obligations in a recent podcast, and as a result we have suspended him for three weeks.”
Simmons made the comments on his podcast Monday. You can hear the entire rant here, but the long and short of it was that he believes Goodell is a liar and that the way the NFL has handled the Ray Rice situation is “f—ing bulls—.” Simmons dared ESPN to punish him for sharing his opinion.
“I really hope somebody calls me or emails me and says I’m in trouble for anything I say about Roger Goodell,” he 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.”
You have to wonder if Simmons would have been punished had he not provoked his employer. ESPN has allowed veterans like Adam Schefter to blast the handling of the Rice situation, albeit in a less animated fashion.
This is not the first time Simmons has been in trouble with ESPN. He was suspended from Twitter last year for criticizing “First Take” and also suspended in 2009 for making derogatory remarks about an ESPN radio affiliate.
