On its face, it looks like ESPN suspended Bill Simmons, perhaps its most high-profile voice, for criticizing NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Here’s some of what Simmons said about Goodell on his weekly NFL gambling podcast via Awful Announcing:
I just think not enough is being made out of the fact that they knew about the tape and they knew what was on it. Goodell, if he didn’t know what was on that tape, he’s a liar. I’m just saying it. He is lying. I think that dude is lying. If you put him up on a lie detector test that guy would fail. For all these people to pretend they didn’t know is such f—— b——-. It really is — it’s such f—— b——-. And for him to go in that press conference and pretend otherwise, I was so insulted. I really was.
I really hope somebody calls me or emails me and says I’m in trouble for anything I say about Roger Goodell. Because if one person says that to me, I’m going public. You leave me alone. The commissioner’s a liar and I get to talk about that on my podcast … Please, call me and say I’m in trouble. I dare you.
So when ESPN announced a three-week Simmons suspension last night, the story seemed simple — this was the latest instance in which ESPN has let the NFL exert outsize influence over its content (Playmakers, Jacked Up, League of Denial, etc.).
But in the cold light of day, I’m not sure that story completely stands up to scrutiny. Here’s what is true: the NFL exerts major influence over ESPN because the network needs NFL broadcast rights to justify the subscriber fees it charges cable operators. CBS, Fox and NBC make back their rights fees (or some of them) through advertising. ESPN makes money on advertising, but also has a much more lucrative revenue stream through carriage fees. It means that every cable subscriber to a system that carries the channel is worth $5.54 to ESPN whether he or she cares about sports or not. This is the highest subscriber fee in cable TV by far, and is justified in part because ESPN shows 17 Monday Night Football games a season. If the NFL, for whatever reason, decided to take those games to TNT or move them to the fledgling NBC Sports Network or keep them for the NFL Network, ESPN’s revenues would take an enormous hit. Cable operators would bargain for lower rates because keeping subscribers from baseball and basketball games is less fraught. So when the NFL wants something from ESPN, it usually gets it.
But if ESPN’s bosses had been primarily concerned with protecting Goodell, it is hard to explain the last two weeks of coverage, which was rightly praised by its ombudsman, the great Robert Lipsyte. ESPN has been really hard on Goodell both in its reporting and in its incorporation of critical voices into coverage. You might argue that the focus on Goodell actually insulates his 31 spectacularly wealthy bosses from their place in this picture. I think you’d be right. But that doesn’t really change the story.
Reporting today from The Big Lead suggests that ESPN was furious not at Simmons’ statement, but rather at his insistence that he was somehow above the brand. And when you think about it, the dare to ESPN brass was an attack on the journalistic orientation of the news side. I don’t think that was his intent, but it is how it came across. He is suggesting that ESPN somehow did not want to report on the NFL’s troubles and was trying to prevent its writers and editors from doing just that. Perhaps ESPN was telling its reporting staff to protect Goodell, but I’d like to see some proof of that.
ESPN’s suspension of Simmons makes the issue stupider (hot take). If ESPN suspended him for insulting a business partner, shame on it for letting the wall between news and programming slip. If ESPN suspended him in a show of corporate power shame on it for doing so in a way that poisons our sporting discourse. The more we mistake mere namecalling for speaking truth to power the worse off our spaces for discussion will be for it.
I don’t think there’s much in Simmons’ statement worth defending. Simmons’ initial statement was nothing more than a hot sports take. Whether Roger Goodell is a lying liar who lies about what videos he has and hasn’t watched is an empirical question, but not one that an opinion-merchant (and Simmons usually is one of the best) is at all equipped to answer. ESPN’s actual reporting suggests, at best, that the NFL and the Ravens went out of their ways not to fully know what happened between Ray and Janay Rice. Isn’t that worse than one guy being a liar? Doesn’t that suggest a rot in the corporate culture of the NFL and its member clubs? Doesn’t it suggest a complete blind spot on issues of domestic abuse (which go along with blind spots on head injuries, which predate Goodell’s tenure). The league and its teams have access to massive public funds, both locally and through tax exempt status, doesn’t this mismanagement raise questions about the wisdom about those expenditures? Goodell matters a little bit, but he is frontman for a league that matters a lot.
So yes, #freesimmons, but so he can actually talk about why sports matter and not just call people names.
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