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ESPN Doesn't Need Bill Simmons, Says ESPN's In-House Critic
Amy Sussman/Getty Images Simmons, who was suspended in September, is known as "The Sports Guy." The biggest and most intriguing mystery in sports media right now is Bill Simmons' future at ESPN. While it seems unlikely that he'll remain there, no one knows whether he will eventually branch out on his own or join another sports-media company.
Despite a contract that pays him more than $5 million a year at ESPN, the scuttlebutt is that Simmons was "furious" at the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports after his latest suspension, this time for challenging his bosses to punish him after he called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a liar.
In an interview with Ryan Glasspiegel of TheBigLead.com, ESPN's outgoing ombudsman, Robert Lipsyte, was asked about the future of ESPN franchises initiated by Simmons (e.g., the "30 for 30" documentary series and Grantland.com) should Simmons indeed leave the network.
To the surprise of many, Lipsyte took the opportunity to criticize Simmons' contributions, suggesting they are overstated. He predicted the network would survive just fine without Simmons, aka "The Sports Guy."
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Yes, Lipsyte has a point about how the network can continue without Simmons. ESPN is big enough that it will be fine. But his point is also overly simplistic and ignores the fact that there are only a handful of sports-media personalities whose industrywide influence rival Simmons'.
Coincidentally, the idea of replacing Simmons at ESPN is much like a conversation Simmons recently had on his podcast with Grantland writer Andy Greenwald. The two discussed rebooting television franchises — how it works in some cases and completely fails in others.
One example of a predictable failure was the recent reboot of "The Rockford Files," a private-investigator show from the 1970s. Greenwald's point was that even though the original was very popular, what the producers missed was that the show was built around the highly likable James Garner as Jim Rockford, and the reboot was destined to fail with Dermot Mulroney in the lead.
That is what Simmons is to ESPN. He is a personality that people gravitate toward, for better or for worse. The network's many projects would go on, but they would not be nearly as popular without Simmons in the lead role.
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