It sure looks like there’s still some soreness between ESPN fixture and Grantland editor Bill Simmons and his employer. Barely three weeks after returning from a suspension for calling Roger Goodell a “liar” and daring his bosses to punish him for it, Simmons is going after his colleagues on the very Twitter account he was banned by the company from using during his three-week unpaid vacation.
On the surface, the latest issue started when Simmons doubted the early season play of LeBron James on an ESPN Radio show yesterday. On Mike and Mike this morning, fellow ESPN host Mike Golic called Simmons’s hot take “one of the most ridiculous statements I’ve heard four games into a season in my life in any sport.”
Golic continued, “That’s what I’ll say about Bill Simmons. So, you know, he grabbed a headline, which is something I know he loves — and that’s one of the most ridiculous lines I’ve ever heard in any sport in my life. Four games into a season. I don’t even … that’s ridiculous.”
Simmons, already on the thinnest of ice ahead of his contract’s end in 2015, then made it abundantly clear that he doesn’t care about treading lightly with Bristol:
That last one is a shot at ESPN ombudsman Robert Lipsyte, who sided with management when Simmons was suspended, citing the Sports Guy’s “‘bad boy, let’s-go-to-Vegas’ persona” and “well-worn punkishness.” In a column on Tuesday, Lipstye added, “I think it’s time everyone involved — Simmons, ESPN and the audience — evolves.” This is Simmons telling ESPN, “You first.”
