Bill Simmons Reveals His First HBO Project

In the latest episode of his podcast, Simmons spoke to the writer Malcolm Gladwell about ESPN’s decision to shutter the sports and pop culture site. He expects that an “I was really busy making videos for my site of which I was editor-in-chief” will be viewed as a valid excuse, not as the “dog ate my homework” justification it really is.

“A couple of my people were texting me, like, ‘Hey man, you want to listen to that podcast before it goes up?”

Whether or not either side will admit it, there’s been an arms race for talent between Bill Simmons and ESPN.

But Simmons said his suspension by ESPN a year ago, prompted by critical remarks he made on his podcast about National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell, signaled the end of his time at the company. “I would have taken it out”, said Simmons. I was working my [butt] off. I was about to do a six-hour taping session with Jalen Rose, where we did our little National Basketball Association YouTube previews. Hock directed a few of the “30 for 30” series Simmons helped produce during his time with ESPN.

Speaking at a conference last month, ESPN president John Skipper said it’s “completely wrong” to suggest that Simmons lost his job at ESPN over his comments about Goodell.

Simmons came to ESPN in 2001, and founded the Grantland Web site.

“I knew the rhetoric would spin that the site didn’t make enough money … and part of that was my fault”, he said, stating that he never anxious about such signs of monetary success as page views, which can translate into ad dollars. If I’m going to push the envelope like I did, you gotta know where the line is, because the last thing I want to do is put all those people in a bad spot.

“We were like this little boutique place that’s trying to build traffic and trying to give them a little soul”.

Simmons said if he could do it over again, he would have edited the infamous podcast that got him suspended from ESPN and eventually led to his split from the company. However, Simmons said he stands “by everything I said about him”.