Bill Simmons out at ESPN?

Dead on. I live in cubicleville and a bunch of us look forward to his stuff.

Can you say "bidding war"?

Likely suspects: SI, CBS Sportsline, AOL Sports ... hell, what are the odds Mark Cuban throws some wacky amount of money his way?

The timing would be interesting. Is Rushin's exit telegraphing Simmons getting into SI's mix?

P.S. If Simmons leaves, ESPN.com is dead to me. With all the Insider crap hidden within the site, there's little to no reason to go to ESPN.com without Simmons, who reportedly fought to keep his content free on the site.

P.P.S. This would be the company's biggest loss since Olbermann flew the coop.

 

And if Simmons winds up with Air and Space, I'll cancel my subscription

 

FYI, he's making well over "six figs" already.

 

More fitting than he'll ever know.

Psst! Pat Morita is dead. Just keep that in mind before you start writing.

 

Hey, there's the title to his autobiography. Six Figs: Overrated.

 

FYI, no shit. What I meant was that he could do his site by himself again, without the ESPN affiliation and still make a decent living, though probably not as much as he would on the Mouse's dime. If he keeps writing books, or compiling old columns into books with new footnotes, he could stay competitive with his old salary and not have to cower to ESPN's interests.

 

I read his stuff, and while the quality has been far more erratic in the post-Kimmel era, he is still a must read. You can tell that he wants to do something else and he thinks that he should be writing movies. I'm guessing that he's bored and that the golden handcuffs of the Mouse are keeping him chained to his desk. He also simply doesn't have the voice to do TV or radio.

If I had to guess, he writes a once a week column for some other site and tries to write Fast Break 2.

 

Or, he lurks on this site, sees the thread, and re-signs with ESPN to trigger another era of debate just for spite.

 

I wonder if Klosterman is out. He's not on the list of estimable Page 2 columnists anymore. He would be the natural to take over Air and Space or Simmons' spot.

 

The real Bill Simmons died when the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series.
I can't believe no one's brought this up yet.
Since then, his columns have been "hey look at me, I'm in Miami/Vegas/Los Angeles hanging with superstar athletes and movie stars. Isn't that funny?"
The Onion had it right when they reported, "A confused Bill Simmons picks The Departed to win the Super Bowl."
Granted he also moved to LA to start writing for Kimmel, but I kept reading after he moved and he was OK at first. It wasn't journalism, but I guess he never really was a real journalist.
His Boston stuff was whiney at times, but he was at least writing what he knew. He's gone Hollywood and it doesn't come as suprise that he wants to start writing movie scripts.

 

I don't think Simmons could work in such a confined space.

 

No one (even Simmons himself) would ever consider him a journalist, but anyone who says the guy doesn't have talent as a a comedic writer is kidding themselves. His stuff has undeniably fallen off somewhat, but it's still entertaining, and he'll be missed.