Bill Simmons Suspension: Unfortunate, Not Unjust

The Bill Simmons suspension has been resonating throughout social media with the #FreeBill hashtags and other well-wishes from his legion of fans. ESPN just handed down a three week suspension to Simmons for a tirade he participated in on his most recent podcast, focused at NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. It’s unfortunate that Simmons will be out of work so long, but it’s certainly not unwarranted or unjust.

Simmons is one of the most well known NBA voices around and became so popular that he was able to create a whole spinoff site from ESPN, called Grantland. His podcasts are some of the most listened to in all of sports and his opinions hold a lot of weight — especially in the NBA.

With this suspension, it wasn’t Bill’s love of his Boston Celtics or his distaste for First Take that got him in hot water — it was some very harsh words towards not only Goodell, but his own employer. Here is the part about Goodell that really got him in hot water:

"I just think not enough is being made out of the fact that they knew about the tape and they knew what was on it. 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."

If Simmons had just said that, it would have been in poor taste, but I don’t think he would have been suspended. He’s making an unfounded allegation against a network partner, but I think ESPN could have smoothed that over considering they pay Simmons to give his opinion, not to give theirs.

Instead, Simmons went a step further, which in my eyes is why this blew up in his face. In reference to his employer (ESPN) and anyone else, Simmons figuratively stood on his barstool and challenged anyone in earshot:

"You leave me alone. The commissioner is a liar, and I get to talk about that on my podcast."

He also went on to use inflammatory words, essentially begging somebody to confront him over this so that he could take it public and continue to talk/vent/rage on about it.

Those that see Simmons’ suspension as a problem aren’t looking at this in the right light. He isn’t being suspended because he gave his opinion and that’s it. He’s been suspended because he made a completely unfounded allegation, called a very powerful man (and network friend) a liar, then challenged his own superiors to do something about it.

There’s no question that Simmons forced the network’s hand here. If they do nothing, he can boast about how he can get away with anything. They had to discipline him, if only to send a message to everyone in the organization to tell them one major thing — nobody is bigger than this network.

I applaud ESPN for taking what is sure to be a very unpopular stance here. Most see Goodell as a liar so to hear Simmons say it wasn’t exactly groundbreaking. But, it’s their job to make sure their reports are based in fact. If their employees fail to do that and then challenge someone to do something about it, they should. If it were anyone other than Simmons, they’d probably have been fired.