Bill Simmons is leaving ESPN

May 13, 2015

Simmons, an ESPN sports writer, who has run Grant land, a sports and
entertainment site for almost 15 years will not be renewing his contract with ESPN.
President John Skipper says Bills done an excellent job for us on Grantland, and we
have an outstanding staff. Bills contributions have been fantastic, including his own
column. I hope well have a friendly discussion about the transition. Were
absolutely committed to the site.
Although David Cho, Grantlands publisher, left last week for personal reasons the
show has been an enormous success by discussing sports and pop culture. It has
won both a Peabody and an Emmy for its popularity.
Simmons has solidified himself as one of the most influential writers on the internet,
most would recognize him from the incident last year when he called NFL
commissioner Roger Goodwell a liar during a podcast about the Ray Rice domestic
violence case. Skipper said this incident has no bearing on his decision and that he
as well as Simmons are not agreeing on other issues, even though he was
suspended for three weeks because of it.
Despite Simmons opinions on the show as well as social media, it has gained large
popularity during the years and has brought tremendous success to ESPN. However
his Boston biased opinions are always on his mind in many cases turn to be
controversial. In this sense, many regard this relationship between Simmons and
ESPN to be mutually beneficial.
ESPN has not released much information regarding their relationship with Simmons.
Having said that, Simmons will probably find himself somewhere different in the
near future because of his previous status and work at ESPN.

To follow up with his status and potential opportunities, please contact.

Ahmed Elkadri, Media Relations

2878 ON Devon Rd.
Office: (519) 658-8787
Fax: (405) 894-8984
aelkadr@uwo.ca