ESPN network President, John Skipper, failed to deliver the news to Bill Simmons before Twitter did. The tweet came from the hands of New York Times’ Richard Sandomir last Friday, informing the public of Simmons’ inevitable departure after spending almost 15 years with the sports media giant.
BIll SImmons to leave ESPN, according to ESPN president John Skipper. “We weren’t going to get to the terms,” said Skipper.
— Richard Sandomir (@RichSandomir) May 8, 2015
Simmons has not yet responded to his 3.7 million followers, however, they can expect to see him working at ESPN until the end of September, which is when his $5 million contract will end. The next question is whether Simmons will actually stay put until the ending date of his contract.
The news was confirmed by Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter at ESPN’s upfront presentation that Simmons had found out through Sandomir’s tweet. John Skipper, on Bill Simmons, said, “it was business.” The decision to not renew Simmons’ contract does not bear any judgments of his character. He’s quoted as saying that it does “not detract from the appreciation I have for Bill Simmons.”
And he really did have a true appreciation for Simmons. James Andrew Miller of Vanity Fair has documented the biography of ESPN over the years. He detailed the relationship between Skipper and Simmons before Skipper even became network President. When he was responsible for content at ESPN, Skipper developed a strong relationship with Simmons which was important in Simmons’ decision to remain at ESPN circa 2010. And that culminated in Simmons becoming the highest paid individual at ESPN.
Skipper goes on further to say that Simmons is a “brilliant” writer and editor who added “tremendous value” to ESPN. The outcome was not based on money, but rather “what he wants to do and what we want to do… and deciding if it’s going to be a match. And we decided that ultimately, [it] wouldn’t be.”
Sounds like it was a mutual break-up from Skipper’s point of view, but the interesting part is that he confirmed Simmons was not aware of the final decision until the tweet was released. If the renewal wasn’t about money, and Skipper assured that Simmons added value to the company, then what could the fallout possibly be about?
It certainly seemed that Simmons was a valuable player at ESPN. The network accrued a large and loyal fan base from the the well known columnist and together helped develop the website Grantland, where he is currently editor-in-chief, and the 30 for 30 documentary series.
But apparently, there was a troubling relationship brewing since last year, when many felt that Simmons acted as if he had different prerogatives and that he was exempt from the rules. Tensions escalated to a point when Simmons called the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a liar during his podcast of The B.S. Report and daring ESPN to punish him. Such actions got him suspended.
It was the third time Simmons was caught directing disparaging comments to his employer. Earlier in 2009, he was banned from Twitter for two weeks for labelling the Boston ESPN radio affiliate as “deceitful scumbags.” In 2013, Twitter again issued him a suspension for calling a “First Take” segment “awful and embarrassing to everyone involved.”
This past Christmas Simmons was greeted by an insubstantial two weeks pay, a punishment that was meant to be doled out during his Goodell rant suspension. Tensions never really quelled since.
Then, again this past week, while on the Dan Patrick Show, Simmons verbally denounced Roger Goodell for his handling of the Deflate-gate investigation. He specifically said that Goodell lacks “testicular fortitude.” This might have been the last act Skipper could take, especially due to the fact that ESPN holds a $15.2 billion contract with the NFL for broadcasting rights of Monday Night Football. Ultimately, it makes sense to cut Simmons out of the picture and relieve tensions across the board.
photo via Grantland Channel
