Recently, Bill Simmons spoke out on the Roger Goodell's statement regarding the recent issues surrounding the NFL, calling him a “liar" and claiming that his defense is “such f***ing bu**sh*t” on his B.S. Report podcast. But Simmons didn't stop there. He also dared his employer, ESPN, to suspend him for his comments. And, well, ask (or dare) and you shall receive. The Worldwide Leader in Sports has hit Simmons with a three-week suspension.
Here's their full statement.
“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.”
According to John Ourand, media reporter for Sports Business Journal, the reason for the suspension was because Simmons: 1) challenged ESPN to confront him on his comments and 2) "offered no proof when profanely calling Goodell a liar."
A suspension handed down by ESPN for speaking his mind is nothing new to Simmons. However, with comments like this:
"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."
Could we be in for a drastic response from Simmons? Stay tuned.
Update:
The best perspective on this move by ESPN may come from @cjzero:
[via Awful Announcing]
