Gag order on Bill Simmons?

[ivanvamp]

Here's all Simmons said about the spygate thing in his latest espn column:

---
Now that it's finally finished, I think we learned three lessons from Spygate beyond the obvious one that "it's a bad idea to cheat because you might end up losing a No. 1 pick and getting fined $500,000":

1. In retrospect, maybe it's a bad idea to put too much stock into the deranged claims of a former third-level video assistant who's hoping to get paid for interviews even though he's not comfortable showing what he "has."

2. If you had a sister who wanted to get engaged to someone who got fired from his low-ranking NFL job and moved to Hawaii to become an assistant golf pro, you would take her out to dinner, urge her not to take the plunge and make it clear you think she's ruining her life for a complete loser. But if that same complete loser claims to have evidence that can bring down an NFL team, we should all believe him for a few months, no questions asked.

3. If you have a national column in which you're excoriating a sports team for cheating even though it already paid a severe penalty for what it did, and you're hinting more revelations are coming down the road, and then it's proven you were barking up the wrong tree ... you need to admit defeat and quit blowing the situation out of proportion. No, really.
---

I wonder if that last point is a direct shot at Easterbrook, or if he has many others in mind.

 

[Sicilian]

Simmons takes shot at Easterbrook?

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080522

Go almost all the way down to his points on Spygate. Is number 3 a shot at Easterbrook? I would say Tomase, but he says "National Column".

Good for Bill

Edit: Damn, just saw someone already posted this in the Gag Order thread. Mods, delete at will

 

[Palm Beach Pats Fan]

could be Easterbrook, but could also be Fish, since Fish months ago wrote alot about some brief contact he had with Walsh and basically said the guy would have something and would be believable.

 

[otis p. driftwood]

Could even be Peter "chicken a la" King.

 

[jmt57]

So much for the gag order; shots at espn classic, espn roasts - dana jacobsen, as well as easterbrook and fish.

 

[BradyFTW!]

If you read some of the links he says he worked all that stuff out and they reneged, he said they lied.

I did read the link, but he should have known better than to trust them. This is ESPN we're talking about, did he seriously think they'd hand editorial control over to him?

 

[Sicilian]

Could be all three and then some I guess. Maybe a blanket statement to cover the national media in general. Either way, glad he said something, and I'll bet he'd say more but for some contract clauses with ESPN.

 

[hambone1818]

Dude, good for Simmons. He said, in the deadspin e-mail, that ESPN has basically screwed him over. They said one thing during a contract negotiation regarding his freedom to write what he chooses, and they've done another. So now he's taking direct shots at them. The WNBA comment, the Spygate comment, etc...and the section about Josh Howard...I mean, that's just him saying to his editor 'I dare you to take this out, you bastard'.

Off topic, but I couldn't agree more with this comment:

I'll be honest: When Terry Francona gave Jon Lester the extra-long hug after Monday's no-hitter, it didn't just get a little dusty at the Sports Guy Mansion, it got "Brian's Song"-level dusty.

Great moment.

 

[JoePats]

Shouldn't Bill have gotten the "freedom to write what he wants to" clause in his contract, instead of getting it verbally and complaining about it later?

 

[PittPatriot]

are you joking? Historically, the Celtics have been FAR more important and relevant on the Boston sports scene than the Patriots. Say what you want about the divergent paths they've taken over the last decade, but the Celtics having a legit shot at the title is a huge story right now.

I agree. When I was a kid, we'd joke the Mass license plates were green because the Celtics ruled the region.
They are Red/white/blue now...coincidence? I think not!

 

[dhamz]

Never understood the big deal about Bill Simmons. His act has been tired for years recycling the same ideas and jokes while finding ways to make references to his 40 year old friends who still call each other by nicknames that were lame when they were 12.