Bill Simmons is thought to be one of the most respected and influential men in ESPN's coverage of sports.
His The B.S. Report is a popular podcast posted each week, and in it he discusses everything from point spreads to the serious issues plaguing the sports world on any given week.
Simmons was particularly offended by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's press conference last week, and he decided to call the situation as he saw it: as B.S. ESPN responded to Simmons's honest rant by suspending him for three weeks.
Simmons fans are outraged because it is his honesty that has made him so respected in the industry in the first place, and they believe it is about time someone said what everyone else is thinking. ESPN took down the podcast, originally posted Monday, but here is some of the commentary that got Simmons in hot water:
"Goodell, if he didn't know what was in that tape, he's a liar. I'm just saying it. He is lying. I think that dude is lying. If you put him up on a lie-detector test, that guy would fail. And for all these people to pretend they didn't know is such [expletive] [expletive], it really is. It's such [expletive] [expletive]."
He also dared someone to challenge him for saying what appears to be the obvious truth of the situation.
"I really hope somebody calls me or emails me and says I'm in trouble for anything I say about Roger Goodell. Because if one person says that to me, I'm going public. You leave me alone. The commissioner's a liar, and I get to talk about that on my podcast. ... Please, call me and say I'm in trouble. I dare you."
Apparently, ESPN took him up on that and punished him for his comments. What is more than a little ironic is the fact that Simmons's suspension for calling a spade a spade is actually a heftier penalty than what Goodell originally gave Ray Rice in the first place.
Do you agree with Simmons's suspension, or do you think it is ridiculous for ESPN to punish him for doing what they hired him to do: call things as he sees them?
