ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons for Tirade on Roger Goodel

[MrBill]

Bill Simmons suspended 3 weeks for saying what we all are thinking about the Ray Rice videotape. A lot of people are using the hashtag #FreeBillSimmons on Twitter to protest his suspension.

ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons for Tirade on Roger Goodell
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
SEPT. 24, 2014

On Monday, ESPN’s Bill Simmons challenged his employer to discipline him for excoriating N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell’s handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence case. Simmons, on his Grantland.com podcast, repeatedly called Goodell a liar for saying that he had not seen the elevator video of Rice punching his fiancée.

Simmons calmly delivered his harshly critical remarks while peppering them with obscenity — an incendiary brew, especially considering ESPN’s business relationship with the N.F.L. on “Monday Night Football,” the college draft and other programming.

ESPN did not wait long to discipline Simmons.

On Wednesday, it suspended him for three weeks from all his activities: a long menu that includes columnist, podcast host, editor in chief of Grantland and executive producer of the 30 for 30 documentary series.

“Every employee must be accountable to ESPN and those engaged in our editorial operations must also operate within ESPN’s journalistic standards,” the company said in a statement. “We have worked hard to ensure that our recent N.F.L. coverage has met that criteria.”

ESPN suspended Bill Simmons for three weeks. Credit Amy Sussman/Getty Images The New Yorker
Simmons, ESPN said, “did not meet those obligations.”

On his Grantland podcast, Simmons said: “Goodell, if he didn’t know what was on that tape, he’s a liar. I’m just saying it. He is lying. I think that dude is lying. If you put him up on a lie-detector test, that guy would fail.” He added: “I really hope somebody calls me or emails me and says I’m in trouble for anything I say about Roger Goodell, because if one person says that to me, I’m going public. You leave me alone.”

ESPN has removed the podcast from the Grantland website.

This is the third suspension for Simmons in his career at ESPN, and the most serious. In 2009 and 2013, he was barred from using Twitter for messages that violated company guidelines. In the latter case, he said that a quarrel on ESPN2’s “First Take” between Skip Bayless and the Seattle Seahawks was “awful and embarrassing.”

Simmons was unavailable for comment on the latest ESPN action against him.

Simmons’s latest suspension is not the first one at ESPN connected to the Rice case.

In July, Stephen A. Smith, a commentator on “First Take,” was discussing Rice and the two-game suspension that Goodell initially imposed. In rambling remarks, Smith suggested that women should avoid provoking men into assaulting them. He was soon after suspended from a week from “First Take” and his ESPN Radio show.

ESPN has not publicly offered its rationale about the length of its suspensions. In 2012, ESPN suspended Max Bretos, an anchor, for using the term “chink in the armor” in reference to Jeremy Lin. In 2010, Tony Kornheiser got a two-week suspension for comments about an outfit worn by Hannah Storm, a “SportsCenter” anchor.

 

[dave]

ESPN claiming journalistic integrity, the WWE admitting it's entertainment. Am I missing something?

 

[MrBill]

ESPN claiming journalistic integrity, the WWE admitting it's entertainment. Am I missing something?

ESPN is pretty much admitting they are entertainment as well at this point. Stick to the script and don't piss off our corporate partners or else.

 

[KINGOFOOTBALL]

Lol ESPN "journalistic integrity" what a joke.

 

[the Brain]

Espn must pay well because there is no way i could work for a place that asks for my opinion & then punishes me for doing just that.

 

[SethMode]

Espn must pay well because there is no way i could work for a place that asks for my opinion & then punishes me for doing just that.

That's what is insane to me. Hire guy because of his opinionated blog and how he tries to represent the common fan. Delight as guy brings TONS of people to the site and operates basically the only part of the site that people lend any credibility to. Suspend same guy for doing what you hired him to do.

ESPN is like pigs from Animal House. Say whatever you want, as long as you say what we want you to say.

 

[Senser81]

ESPN claiming journalistic integrity, the WWE admitting it's entertainment. Am I missing something?

Canada admitting that it sucks.