Bill Simmons is leaving ESPN after network decides not to renew his contract

Bill Simmons is going away ESPN once network decides to not renew his contract, Bill Simmons, United Nations agency rose from AOL blogger to at least one of the additional authoritative members of the sports media trade at ESPN, is going away the network once his contract expires at the tip of Sept.

I decided nowadays that we tend to don't seem to be aiming to renew Bill Simmons’ contract. we've been in negotiations and it had been clear it had been time to maneuver on. ESPN’s relationship with Bill has been dependent — he has made nice content for U.S.A. several|for several} years and ESPN has provided him many new opportunities to unfold his wings. we tend to want Bill continuing success as he plans his next chapter. ESPN remains committed to Grantland and that we have a robust team in situ,” Skipper aforementioned in an exceedingly statement.

In his just-posted story, the the big apple Times’ Richard Sandomir aforementioned contract-renewal talks had been current between Simmons and ESPN “for months.” Skipper told Sandomir that the variations between the 2 were “about over cash.”

“We’ve had a superb run with Bill, virtually fifteen years. It’s been sensible for U.S.A. and sensible for him. it had been a call I had to form and he had to form to maneuver forward,” Skipper told Sandomir.

Over at the large Lead, mythical being McIntyre writes that ESPN felt Simmons’s terms — $6 million p.a. — was an excessive amount of considering the revenue he was conveyance in with Grantland and his different endeavors.

At ESPN, Simmons was the propulsion behind variety of ventures, as well as the pop-culture web site Grantland and also the “30 for 30″ documentary series.

It was not instantly clear wherever Simmons’s next destination would be. He has typically clashed with ESPN management, conflict that came to move in Oct once the network suspended him for 3 weeks once he referred to as NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a “liar” in an exceedingly podcast.

“Skipper aforementioned that the incident had no relating his call to finish ESPN’s relationship with Simmons,” Sandomir writes.

Around the time that Simmons’s suspension over, Sandomir wrote that “people near Simmons say he's furious and has been talking lots concerning whether or not ESPN continues to be the proper place for him,” which he had vulnerable to depart the network within the past. The network additionally had suspended Simmons from Twitter doubly antecedently, in 2009 for bashing ESPN radio affiliate WEEI in Bean Town and in 2013 once occupation a “First Take” section between Richard Sherman and Skip Bayless “awful and embarrassing.”

Sports Business Daily’s John Ourand, meanwhile, wrote that “ESPN clearly needs to renew the deal.” however, ESPN’s leaders have long had the name of viewing the network as larger than anyone of its stars.Simmons might follow the trail taken by Saint Patrick, United Nations agency left the network in 2007 to primarily become a free agent (he currently encompasses a syndicated radio show and hosts the “Football Night in America” studio show for NBC). Simmons, United Nations agency wrote a popular book concerning hoops associated is an unembarrassed fan, additionally has declared that he would depart ESPN if the network ever lost the proper to beam NBA games. Turner Sports is that the solely different company that has the NBA.

One former ESPN government was blindsided by the news, in line with Deadspin’s Dave McKenna. John Walsh, the previous government editor at ESPN till his retirement earlier this year, told McKenna that he hadn’t detected the news before ESPN’s announcement weekday morning.

“I speaked to John Skipper last night at nine and this didn’t definitely didn’t return up in our talk,” Walsh told McKenna.

“He’s done some things at ESPN that have pained individuals in how, or discomposed individuals, or, I don’t understand what the proper word is, however things that created some individuals but happy concerning what aforementioned he’s aforementioned concerning the corporate,” Walsh continuing. “But overall, he’s been fantastic. i believe he’s proficient, he’s arduous operating, he’s freelance, a good thinker concerning sports, an amazing partisan, keeps up with popular culture, and he developed one in all the foremost literate sites on the web with Grantland. i like the guy.”
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