Bill Simmons has made it a mission to trash ESPN seemingly every chance he gets now that he has begun a new era with HBO, and one of his former coworkers is tired of having to sit back and take it.
During an appearance at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit on Wednesday, Simmons was once again critical of ESPN for the network’s coverage of major NFL issues.
“I think the way you’ve seen ESPN cover the NFL the last year has been really shaky,” he said. “Some of the stuff like the Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Deflategate was embarrassing because ESPN was in the middle of that story with bad reporting. Then when everyone turned on (Roger) Goodell in July in August, you didn’t really see anything on ESPN but you saw it everywhere else.
“It’s hard to watch that stuff and not say, ‘Wait a minute, this is (the NFL’s) biggest partner. Are they holding back a little?'”
Simmons said that ESPN and other networks like CBS were “absolutely” holding back with their coverage of certain stories because of their partnerships with the NFL. Enter Bob Ley, who does not feel Simmons is being fair to the World Wide Leader.
Yes, @BillSimmons entitled to his own opinions http://t.co/thaWMTrFEJ, but not his own set of facts. See months of OTL, @DVNJr reporting.
— Bob Ley (@BobLeyESPN) October 8, 2015
The one story Simmons seems to be ignoring is the lengthy Outside the Lines report from last month, which certainly made the Patriots look worse to some but was also very critical of the NFL for the way it handled Spygate several years ago. The narrative in the OTL report about former Rams coach Mike Martz was a horrible look for the league. That said, ESPN did itself no favors in the public eye when someone at the network conveniently edited a reaction piece to the OTL report that was written by an ESPN employee.
Simmons took aim at ESPN and Mike and Mike in one of his first new podcasts with this colorful rant, and it doesn’t look like he plans on slowing down anytime soon.
