HBO's Bill Simmons said he thought Showtime was "really going to get involved" in bidding for his services following his departure last summer from ESPN, but he believes his public comments about NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell "scared them off," according to Chad Finn of BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE. Simmons said, "That became a football decision for them. Football is their biggest partner; they basically told me that." Asked whether he would invite Goodell and ESPN President John Skipper on his upcoming HBO show, "Any Given Wednesday," Simmons said, "I would love to have Goodell." But he added of the commissioner, "He’d never do it. ... He’s incoherent." Asked again about Skipper, Simmons said, "I don’t think Skipper is going to be on. With the way last year has gone, with it being way more acrimonious than I think it should have been, what they did to Grantland at the end and what they tried to do publicly to the people that left ... that pushed it to another level." Simmons also said ESPN opting not to renew his contract prior to the end of his term "was the greatest thing (ESPN) ever did for me." Simmons: "People in the outside world were like, 'Oh, no, what are you going to do?' And I was like, 'What do you mean? This is great! They just paid me not to work for five months.'" He added, "I took it personally. In a lot of ways, it was a great thing that it played out like it did, because it lit a fire under my ass." Simmons also described the format of his new show, saying there will be "two big conversations during the show." Simmons: "The goal would be to have one more-topical conversation with two other people that kind of makes sense why all three people are talking about it. And then a big interview" (BOSTON GLOBE MAGAZINE, 6/19).
THEORY OF RELATIVITY? In N.Y., Jim Rutenberg noted Simmons' exit from ESPN came just after his Goodell comments, but Simmons "wonders if something else was at play." Disney Chair & CEO Bob Iger last year was at the head of the Carson NFL stadium project that would have been shared by the Raiders and Chargers, and Simmons said one of his "working theories was, maybe [his exit from ESPN] was driven by Iger because he wants a team." Asked for a response, Skipper said, "Bill would rather spin conspiracy theories and be perceived as a martyr than take responsibility for his own actions. Let me be unequivocal and clear and take responsibility for my actions: I alone made the decision, and it had nothing to do with his comments about the commissioner." Skipper said he severed the relationship with Simmons "because of his repeated lack of respect for this company and, more importantly, the people who work here.” Meanwhile, Rutenberg wrote Simmons' story "offers hope that firebrands like him can find ways to operate independently at this opportune time in media." Simmons: "I’m a proven content maker at a time when it’s great to be that" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/13).
