12/21/24
March 15, 2013
ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons from Twitter for Criticizing 'First Take': ESPN has suspended Bill Simmons from posting on Twitter after he criticized the network for airing a segment on First Take in which Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman repeatedly insulted host Skip Bayliss. "I am not defending this segment," Simmons wrote on Twitter. "I thought it was awful and embarrassing to everyone involved. Seriously." He then added, "But what bothers me about the reaction to that segment is people saying Richard Sherman 'won.' Nobody won. Everyone lost. Including ESPN."
I'm a bit surprised that he was suspended for that. But then again it was only a suspension on twitter. He's usually pretty funny. I've read his columns for years.(even though I'm a YANKS/ LAKERS fan). Hopefully we see something in his weekly column which should be out today.
posted by STUNNER at 06:29 PM on March 15, 2013
Part of me thinks that ESPN is just touchy about First Take, due to the controversy it's caused in the past.
Which is somewhat funny, since the only point of the show seems to be to create artificial controversy, but I don't work at Bristol...
posted by Bonkers at 07:28 PM on March 15, 2013
Yeah, Skip Bayliss is a joke. Whooops, hope i don't get suspended from twitter.
posted by STUNNER at 07:37 PM on March 15, 2013
Oh man that is great. I am so glad the internet exists so that I can watch that. "I'm better at life than you."
posted by insomnyuk at 11:33 PM on March 15, 2013
Skip Bayliss is a fucking joke. It's a shame Sherman didn't have it in him to do a better takedown than that. Pretty shocking not only that ESPN would censor one of its best writers, but give something for all the other sports outlets to talk about.
posted by phaedon at 03:36 AM on March 16, 2013
It's a shame Sherman didn't have it in him to do a better takedown than that.
Yep. If he's known for his trash talking, that segment didn't look like it. He seemed as if he might burst into tears from the stress of confrontation.
posted by rcade at 11:06 AM on March 16, 2013
Wait till Sherman goes out for boutique Mexican food next time he's in Chicago.
Skip's brother will kill him with fire.
posted by beaverboard at 12:22 PM on March 16, 2013
I don't think Skip and Rick are on speaking terms. Which makes me like Rick.
posted by yerfatma at 02:59 PM on March 16, 2013
Skip and Stephen Smith can be royal pains, but that's why many watch it ...
Have to agree with several of the posters after the article: what in the hell was that last graf about? Ruined an excellent article.
posted by jjzucal at 12:32 PM on March 17, 2013
In the past couple weeks I just started to listening to Simmons' podcast, the B.S. Report. Even when he discusses stuff I don't care much about (i.e. MLB, Boston sports), he's still pretty thoughtful and entertaining - at least I think so. Interestingly, in just the last few days, he was mentioning how he was proud of ESPN in the way they've never told him not to do a story of some type. The guy he was interviewing - sorry I forgot who it was - was an investigative reporter and he echoed those sentiments. I think the context had to do with reporting on head injuries in the NFL and criticizing the league response. Anyway, funny now that ESPN puts the hammer down a bit. I expect this will come up in his next podcast.