“It was hardly surprising, given their recent history, but the breakup between ESPN and Bill Simmons, one of its biggest stars, last week was shocking at least in its timing, coming four months before his contract was to expire in September.
The relationship between the columnist, on-air personality and creative force came to a halt Friday when the network’s president, John Skipper, told the New York Times’ Richard Sandomir that he had decided not to renew Simmons’ contract. “I decided,” he said, “it was time to move on.” In some ways, it was a natural decision, especially after Simmons’ suspension last fall when he called NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell “a liar” and dared his bosses to suspend him for so bluntly ripping the head of the network’s most important broadcast partners.
But there was much more to the Simmons soap opera, as James Andrew Miller writes in Vanity Fair. Miller is the author of “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN” and he recounts just how deep the rift went after Simmons’ suspension.
Read more here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/early-lead/wp/2015/05/10/espn-vs-bill-simmons-an-insiders-account-of-their-sudden-breakup/
Cenk Uygur (http://www.twitter.com/cenkuygur), host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.
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