ESPN not renewing Simmons' contract

[scottie]

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/05/repo...-to-leave-espn

The ESPN president also told Sandomir the situation was “about more than money."

I'm really not that surprised based on some of his behavior over the years, but I'm sure he was also asking for the world in negotiations, and maybe didn't even really want to stay.

[cougjunkie]

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/05/repo...-to-leave-espn



I'm really not that surprised based on some of his behavior over the years, but I'm sure he was also asking for the world in negotiations, and maybe didn't even really want to stay.

What sucks is that ESPN owns the rights to Grantland.

[scottie]

What sucks is that ESPN owns the rights to Grantland.

I was curious what would happen with Grantland. I guess since ESPN owns the rights, the staff should be safe, although that article does say this: "Grantland often featured tremendous writing but couldn’t find its footing in its four years of existence."

[MartyFunkhouser]

What sucks is that ESPN owns the rights to Grantland.

If all that happens to Grantland is that they lose Simmons, it will be just fine going forward. He is really one of the worst writers and least insightful writers on the site.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/05/repo...-to-leave-espn



I'm really not that surprised based on some of his behavior over the years, but I'm sure he was also asking for the world in negotiations, and maybe didn't even really want to stay.

Simmons should ask Shelly Long what it's like to leave the biggest draw on TV (or in Simmons' case, the biggest brand in sports TV and cable TV in general).

I'll still read Simmons', I find them entertaining. But if he goes to NBC, Fox or CBS's cable sports channels, then I'm not upping my satellite tier just to see Simmons. While Simmons is a nice asset for ESPN, he needs them a lot more than vice versa.

[SandYFan]

I'm really not that surprised based on some of his behavior over the years, but I'm sure he was also asking for the world in negotiations, and maybe didn't even really want to stay.

For the record, his three-week suspension for his comments on Goodell was crap. It was a classic case of ESPN not wanting to upset the NFL and potentially lose out on that sweet, sweet MNF money.

Simmons should ask Shelly Long what it's like to leave the biggest draw on TV (or in Simmons' case, the biggest brand in sports TV and cable TV in general).

Nah, he'll be fine. I don't read Grantland because it's owned by ESPN, I read it because it's great. If he can recreate it under a different name, I'm in.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Simmons' tv show with HBO has been a ratings disaster. 163,000 people watched the last episode.

The show itself has been quite good sometimes -- interview with Charles Barkley and a panel with Mark Cuban and Malcolm Gladwell -- to quite bad, that terrible interview with Ben Affleck and his stupid monologues. Then again, maybe I can't totally critique the show since I only watched the first three episodes and then gave up. So did a lot of other people apparently.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Simmons' tv show with HBO has been a ratings disaster. 163,000 people watched the last episode.

The show itself has been quite good sometimes -- interview with Charles Barkley and a panel with Mark Cuban and Malcolm Gladwell -- to quite bad, that terrible interview with Ben Affleck and his stupid monologues. Then again, maybe I can't totally critique the show since I only watched the first three episodes and then gave up. So did a lot of other people apparently.

I've got to be honest I started ignoring Simmons a long time ago because I thought he was a three joke pony and I grew bored with Sox/Pats/Celts all the time, but I have really liked the show on HBO. Barkley was great, drunk and slurring his speech Affleck was enjoyable, Rogan was great and Aaron Rodgers was pretty funny. Though I think it was crap he didn't ask him about the Bachelorette.

[cougjunkie]

I've got to be honest I started ignoring Simmons a long time ago because I thought he was a three joke pony and I grew bored with Sox/Pats/Celts all the time, but I have really liked the show on HBO. Barkley was great, drunk and slurring his speech Affleck was enjoyable, Rogan was great and Aaron Rodgers was pretty funny. Though I think it was crap he didn't ask him about the Bachelorette.

Yeah I like his shoe as well. His monologues are meh, but his guests have been great. I actually loved JJ Redick. His story about coach K calling him for the olympics and saying "you are way down the list but you interested?" Was great. Then Coack K calls back and JJ gets excited and he says "just calling to say you are out"

To be honest Jenner wasn't bad either.

[Armenag]

Yet to watch the show, but The Ringer is a huge disappointment. Grantland had a number of short clickbait-type pop culture throwaway articles, but they've moved front and center with the Ringer. The ratio of good articles to garbage has flipped. Too bad; I was excited for it to launch.