Bill Simmons out at ESPN?

First of all, I am not Bill. (Obviously.)

I crossed paths with Bill a few times when he was covering high school stuff at the Boston Herald. He seemed to not enjoy being a "journalist." Who knows how much of the copy was his and or the desk re-writing. I always thought it was decent.

When Simmons started his online column, he took a lot of chances early on. Who else was doing a mail-bag online and doing interactive stuff like that? (Bob Greene didn't have 60 inches to play with.) Heck, he was on Digital City for crying out loud, he could take chances. The fact that AOL kept paying him well after the dot-coms abandoned original content should say something.

He had plenty of readers. He was not promoted, so it was word-of-mouth or e-mail forwards. You know how they say MySpace is helping bands land contracts? He was a very early example of social networking online.

Honestly, I thought Bill did best when he wrote about stuff that he knew a little more about. His column after 9/11 was almost exactly what I was feeling.

Now, when I read him opine on something non-Boston, I just scroll down the page. I understand the deal with wanting to write for movies, really. But he carved out a very lucrative niche for himself years ago. Yes, the pop culture antics may wear out, but he's also abandoned some of his core audience (Boston yuppies who were as passionate about the Sox, Celtics and the Big Dig as he was) by writing on a national level. I believe he'd be best suited writing a more Boston-centered column again, but what do I know?

 

He's not even from Boston. He's a poser from Connecticut -- a part of Connecticut moving increasingly further from classical New England and edging closer to "New York" -- and he has admitted he flirted with becoming a Mets fan.

He's not even a real Red Sox fan.

 

Well, if he's a poser, he does a pretty good job of pulling off the act.

 

Vanilla Ice did a great job of being a poser, too. Look where he is now -- a castmate alongside 40-year-old Webster.

Even given his clear telegenic shortcomings, Simmons has always been destined to host a geeky variety show on the WWL, right on par with that sorry ass, short-lived pile of manure once hosted by gasping loser Jay Mohr. Look where he is now -- Mohr's the one who ought to be competing with Verne Troyer in a game of Elimination Go Fish.

 

Hey, I'm only 37!

 

Laughed out loud at both of the previous posts. Good stuff.

 

You might want to sit down for this:

I didn't know who Bill Simmons was until I began reading stuff written by sportswriters, particularly online sportswriters. I've still read no more than, perhaps, three of his columns. And I only read those because they were linked from somewhere else. And I only have a glancing knowledge of how Bill Simmons became more than just another asshole with an opinion and a bit of wit. And, lastly, I don't really give a rat's ass about any of it.

But enjoy your great debate, I guess.

 

Maybe he's leaving because ESPN.com now has a corrections page and he didn't want to overload their servers.

 

To me, Bill Simmons (and Page 2) has already been gone for some time--the guy's lost all of his original creative energy, his tired recycled stuff the last couple years has SLIPPED SO FAR from where it once was its become almost sad. I used to hit Page 2 religiously because of three writers--Whitlock, Wiley, and Simmons. Whitlock got booted for having stones and failing to properly kowtow, Wiley literally died, and Simmons figuratively might as well have. Page 2 is dead.

 

See I just don't get all the hate.... I kind of stumbled over Bill Simmons about 3 years ago read something funny and then looked back through his "vault".

Bill Simmons writes the perfect material for me to print off the computer at work so I can go sit on the can and read for 10 minutes. It doesn't matter to me whether some of the stuff has been rehashed or is sometimes repetitive because there will always be a couple of gut laughs in there which will help me through the day in cubeville.

A lot of what he writes is disposable and I'm not entirely sure if that is not half of his intent and appeal. (Todays news and tomorrows fish and chip paper ). He has had the odd idea or theory (admittedly going back a little) that is funny, unique, and memorable enough that sports fans through their experiences will sometimes try and apply.

Maybe he doesn't fit a number of people's standards of what a columnist, writer, journalist, reporter should be, but he appeals to a large demographic that don't want to read that type of prose.

As for factual accuracy.... well he is a sports fan and surely we all know how the sports fan inside us will embellish a personal sporting memory through rose tinted glasses over time.

 

As is known, I'm not a fan of Simmons' work. Just personal taste, obviously he's accomplished a great deal.
But if he's feeling tired of writing for ESPN and is willing to try the very high risk endeavor of screenwriting, Simmons has my respect. It takes guts to walk away from a comfy gig to do something new. Whether you think he's any good or not, that should be acknowledged.

 

He's not some guy spouting off at a bar and it's not like his errors are confined to embellishment. He's a writer for a major website and presumably has editors; they ought to at least make an effort to get things correct.