Bill Simmons’ divorce from ESPN has not been pretty and we are now seeing a new level of ugliness. After Tom Brady’s suspension was upheld by the courts, Stephen A. Smith tweeted that Tom Brady was arrogant, uppity, and selfish, and that he brought the suspension on himself. Bill Simmons saw the tweet and unleashed his wrath on Twitter with the following response:
One of multiple ESPN employees used by the NFL to leak anti-Brady info during this saga decides to weigh in. https://t.co/g7rejeMaRZ
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) July 14, 2016
Bill Simmons’ takes are often over the top on purpose and you can’t always take them seriously. However in this instance, his response felt personal since he decided to respond to one of ESPN’s most popular personalities, and smear the entire network at the same time.
Simmons is an ardent supporter of Tom Brady and all things Boston, so it’s no surprise he is defending Brady and the Patriots. However, to suggest that ESPN colluded with the NFL to discredited Tom Brady without presenting any evidence, is a bit reckless to say the least. The bad blood between Simmons and ESPN are probably at levels the public does not quite fully understand, but tweets like this show that his split from ESPN was much more than just business, it was very personal.
Flip the pages to see the rest of his tweets about Brady’s suspension.