If you guys are bill simmons fans,

Thank you Bob. It makes a little more sense now. Those are all good points.

Personally, I like a lot of his stuff. Like you said, the Boston-centric stuff isn't that great and some of his repeated pop culture references can get old. But for the most part I find his columns entertaining.

 

I read, I think in that SI story about him, that Simmons is quite uncomfortable about his message board. I would be too.

 

You forgot his bitter railing against the traditional media because the Boston Globe wouldn't give him a column when he was a nobody with no qualifications.

Disclaimer: The only Simmons columns I've ever read were posted here, and I've read only two, maybe three of those (and didn't care for them). My only knowledge of Simmons comes from reading the 6 million threads about him on SportsJournalists.com. I personally couldn't care less what he writes. I simply don't read it.

Carry on.

 

You also forgot that he writes 8,000 word columns on why Doc Rivers got fired, before Doc Rivers got fired.

Confession: I like Simmons, but wish he would shake things up a little bit more and quit making the same pop culture references. The column where he played video golf against Tiger Woods was good.

 

I like Simmons most of the time, but now that you mention it, he really does have an annoying speaking voice. I might stop reading him now. Seriously.

 

Excellent timing, newbie. You show great promise.

 

Here's my take on Simmons:

I'm not a big fan, not even an average fan, but when I want to read something sports-related that will make me chuckle a few times without making me think, I read Simmons. Don't the rest of you have those bad days when your head hurts a little, so you don't want to read Plaschke, Simers, Posnanski, et al?

 

There are dozens of people residing on this forum alone who are funnier and better skilled than Simmons is.

 

"No there are degress of coincidences" [Elaine]

 

I laugh out loud way more often on this board than I do reading a Simmons column.

Or even at press box quips that go on during the course of a game, most of them making fun of coaches, players, media relations people, etc. - generally at the level of incompetence in sports that you just begin to notice when you're involved with it day-in and day-out. And since most of the people involved are generally humorless and think they have the most important job in the world, they wry quips in the press box are pitch perfect.

And, to bring it back home, far funnier than Simmons. He was a right-place at the right-time guy. Nothing more, nothing less. Pay him no mind.

 

1. Bill found a well-paying niche; congrats to him.
2. Bill has quite a bit of talent, but it's ill-suited at ESPN.com, IMO.
3. To follow up on 2, I think Bill's talents were best suited for AOL/bostonsportsguy.com. He was preaching to the choir, so his material was targeted to what he knew best. He was targeting 18- to 35-year-old guys, and he did well with it.
4. The best place for him at this point probably would be somewhere such as boston.com -- they have money, and they have the traffic that would give him a large platform.