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| Bill Simmons looks on during a celebrity basketball game The popular ESPN columnist Bill Simmons, ensconced somewhere in a radio booth, had worked himself into full lather. Following allegations NFL officials hadn’t been completely forthright in their handling of the Ray Rice scandal, Simmons let loose with an epic rant targeting NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. It can be boiled down to four words: He is a liar. |
“I just think not enough is being made out of the fact that they knew about the [Ray Rice] tape, and they knew what was on it,” Simmons said on his podcast, The B.S. Report, which has since been taken down. “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 on a lie detector test that guy would fail.”
In response to Simmons’s tirade, ESPN on Wednesday suspended him for three weeks. “Every employee must be accountable to ESPN and those engaged in our editorial operations must also operate within ESPN’s journalistic standards,” the sports network said in a statement. “We have worked hard to ensure our recent NFL coverage has met that criteria. Bill Simmons did not meet those obligations.”
The suspension highlights the uneasy — though lucrative and mutually beneficial — relationship between the two powerful acronyms, joined in a $15.2-billion contract over “Monday Night Football.” It also hints at questions over a conflict of interest that, despite its strong coverage of the Ray Rice scandal, ESPN has never been able to shake. How can ESPN simultaneously cover the NFL as a subject while reaping billions from their business ties?
Simmons, a columnist known for voicing his opinions, didn’t appear to breach any journalistic covenant with his rant, and his suspension immediately sparked concern among reporters and editors. “Did ESPN have any idea how all of this would look?” asked Los Angeles Times reporter Matt Pearce.
“Apparently saying Roger Goodell is a liar is a much worse offense than Roger Goodell lying,” added Judd Legum, the editor of ThinkProgress. “Is it ESPN’s corporate position that Roger Goodell is not a liar? Because their own reporting says he is a liar.”
The suspension comes at a particularly inconvenient time for ESPN, which just got done patting itself on the back for excising its conflict-of-interest demons. The piece, written by network ombudsman Robert Lipsyte, explicitly praised Simmons for excoriating Goodell. “The networks heavyweights — Keith Olbermann, Jason Whitlock and Bill Simmons, among others — delivered their own verbal punches,” he wrote in a blog. “I’d like to say I wasn’t the least bit surprised … but I was.”
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