ESPN suspends Bill Simmons

[sirkickyass]

Not saying I condone any of ESPN's decision making, but it's not like they become this mega-empire by mistake. They obviously know what they're doing, so who are we to try and decide how they should run their company? They've been doing something right all these years - and that's manipulating the idiotic public into forming what they should be interested in sporting wise as well as what they should talk about.

There's a tipping point to that kind of hubris. After all, the NFL is the most popular sport in America. Clearly they know what they're doing right?

The Ombudsman has weighed in.

https://espn.go.com/blog/ombudsman/post/_/id/462/strengths-weaknesses-and-suspensions

This regular column is hard to find (buried?) and not frequently updated, but is usually a good read.

https://espn.go.com/blog/ombudsman/

This is a challenging column. I agree with some portions of it, but saying there's insufficient evidence to call Goodell a liar is, in my opinion, ludicrous. If he didn't know what was on the tape then he was willfully ignorant. If he didn't watch it, it's because he didn't want to watch it. Even if he hadn't seen it, what happened was so abundantly clear that the initial punishment was ludicrous anyway.

Obviously Simmons is an arrogant and challenging personality. That doesn't bother me on face (imagine that) and I understand that it rubs some people the wrong way. This was not the right time or place to go after Simmons. The issue at stake here is a little too clear.

 

[TroutBum]

I struggle with Simmons. He spent years thrashing Espn only to gladly sign on and take their money. I guess it's up for debate on whether he took the job for the money, or felt strongly enough about himself that maybe he could bring some good content to them but I'm guessing it was the $$$$$.

What Espn did to him was ******** but the NFL and Espn are in bed together to the point where they should just change their name to NFL Network II. Espn is not going to risk losing TV rights, etc. because one of their reporters had the balls to speak the truth.

As far as Gooddell goes, he is genuinely a bad person. Anybody with a shred of intelligence can never believe the lie that him and his goons never saw that tape and everything else they've botched since this happened. The Ray Rice scandal is not the first time Gooddell has done some shady **** either. The NFL pays him $43 mil a year and the dude is rotten to the core.

Says the guy who always trashed the BCS for years, and then gurgled their balls the instant they got the chance.