ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons For Three Weeks For His REAL TALK About Firing Roger Goodell

Important update to my post yesterday about Bill Simmons putting NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on blast on his podcast. Simmons dared ESPN to take disciplinary action against him for speaking his mind about Goodell’s “fucking bullshit” and, gosh darnit! The Worldwide Leader called his bluff and did just that!

ESPN just announced they are suspending Bill Simmons for three weeks for his comments about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s handling of the Ray Rice situation. Here is the Mothership’s statement:

ESPN Statement on Bill Simmons

“Every employee must be accountable to ESPN and those engaged in our editorial operations must also operate within ESPN’s journalistic standards. We have worked hard to ensure that our recent NFL coverage has met that criteria. Bill Simmons did not meet those obligations in a recent podcast, and as a result we have suspended him for three weeks.”

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Based off this…

… Simmons can’t even speak his mind on Twitter or Facebook.

What’s Simmons move here? Take it on the chin? Quit a very handsome paycheck/being the face of ESPN’s NBA coverage and go start Grandland Part II at Fox Sports with Katie Nolan? Go the Bleacher Report route (it’s the second biggest sports site on the Internet after ESPN) and get to be a TBS/TNT NBA talking head? Almost doesn’t seem like a bad option. Uh… Deadspin? Discuss the options in the comments.

Here’s what I think:

If you missed it, here’s what Simmons said:

I just think not enough is being made out of the fact that they knew about the tape and they knew what was on it. Goodell, if he didn’t know what was on 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. For all these people to pretend they didn’t know is such fucking bullshit. It really is — it’s such fucking bullshit. And for him to go in that press conference and pretend otherwise, I was so insulted. I really was.

The best point that a lot of people have made about this is this is exactly why he fined and suspended Sean Payton for a season [for Bountygate]. Sean Payton was like, ‘I didn’t know.’ [Goodell] was like, ‘Well ignorance [is not an excuse]‘ and suspended him for a year. This is the same exact situation and it’s worse, because he knew and he’s a liar.

Listen here:

Brandon Wenerd is BroBible's publisher, writing on this site since 2009. He writes about sports, music, men's fashion, outdoor gear, traveling, skiing, and epic adventures. Based in Los Angeles, he also enjoys interviewing athletes and entertainers. Proud Penn State alum, former New Yorker. Email: brandon@brobible.com