The Ringer is Live

"I'm not blameless," he says now, acknowledging: "I acted like a brat a couple times, and there are things I could have handled better."

Quite an understatement. Like me admitting I posted a lot here back in the day and acted like an asshole a couple times.

 

YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS OF HIS SUCCESS!

 

Interesting tidbit kind of buried in that THR story:
THE SITE
Sean Fennessey, Editor, The Ringer

"After Bill left Grantland, there was a question of like, 'What's the mission supposed to be now?' " says Fennessey, who turned down an offer to run Grantland and joined The Ringer. Twenty-three alumni have followed. A much smaller faction, with whom there's said to be tension relating to the veil of secrecy surrounding the initial staff exodus, moved to MTV.

By the way, "Return of the Bro Whisperer" is the title of the piece. That's pretty cringe-worthy

 

"With whom there's said..."

 

Wasn't there talk that Simmons told everyone to quit after he got fired? 47 going on 12.

And "Return of the Bro Whisperer" is a terrible title, in that it says it all about Bill, who is too dense to get it's not a compliment.

 

Guessing the editor in charge of layout is not a BS fan, unless he thinks that making Bill sound homoerotic is a good look these days. I would hope he didn't tell people to quit, though I remember Holly Anderson going on a Twitter tirade about some Grantlanders getting left in limbo.

 

/Simmons kills self

/BYH: "WHAT TOOK SO LONG, ASSHOLE!!!!"

 

Yes. I have openly campaigned for his suicide.

Idiot.

 

Simmons apologizes for harsh comment in THR story

I don't know the guy personally - just a whole lot of stories - but Simmons seems to be forever just a little bit pissed that the media system was the way it was in the 1990s. (And the 1980s and the 1970s.) And I don't exactly blame him for that. Newspapers were wrong - and let's face it, remain wrong if they're dumb enough to still do it - to allow one or two (usually white) men to have an opinion for years on end, in perpetuity, to the general disregard of everyone else. But there always seems to be this nagging irritation that, dammit, why do a bunch of stiffs have to prevent me from saying what I think, if a lot of people like what I have to say?

There are no stiffs left to stop him, unless there's some sacred HBO cow Simmons wants to slay. Which I doubt.

 

I remember that Anderson rant well, in part for the super-chill reaction to Jim Miller.



I seem to remember she went out of her way to compliment Simmons, which most Grantlanders have, and instead blame the limbo on Disney/ESPN. Seems as an EiC, the staff really liked him. That's a positive, and hey, The Ringer provides people another place to work.

But man, Simmons is so petulant. He was given project after project, platform after platform, most of which bombed. Anyone remember "Sports Guy's World?" How about the Sports Guy cartoon? Who can forget those stellar comedy segments on early e:60? He was abominable TV yet appeared on an NBA studio show for two seasons and had a basketball show. As for his belief ESPN didn't support Grantland, I must have imagined the endless stream of terribly pretentious advertisements that ran on ESPN programming for its first year of existence.

Grantland never had an identity or a reason for existing outside of the ESPN banner, except Bill wanted it. Five Thirty Eight thrived elsewhere and has a clear directive. The Undefeated has a clear purpose and target audience. Some good stuff came out of Grantland, but what did it serve beyond Simmons' ego-stroking? Why is a 20,000-word feature on sumo wrestling appearing next to Molly Lambert's Hollywood gossip column?

Short answer: because Bill likes it!

Since he's so fond of analogies, here's one: Bill thinks he's Will Hunting, when in reality, he's a Billy Zabka character that got cut off from his trust fund.

 

I think I feel comfortable saying this: Holly did not appreciate Miller acting like people's lives were trading cards, the way he was so giddy about it all. Lot of people got caught in the middle, had to uproot their whole lives again. Miller thought it was a super neat Game of Thrones power struggle!