has the bs hit the fan?

A couple weeks ago, Adam Carolla was explaining how he had to stand up for the creative future of his show at the end of last year, and ended up calling in "sick" for a few days. He mentioned that he recently had a discussion with one of his buddies that is going through a similar situation. At the time I wondered if he was talking about Bill Simmons, as he often sites being handcuffed by his editors and ESPN. The last month or so I've noticed there have been a lack of columns lately, but that's nothing new to those who have followed his work for years. Plus, if I'm being 100% honest (and lets face it, when aren't I? Abe Lincoln what?) lately I've been enjoying his podcasts more than his columns anyhow.

Well, I might have been onto something. (or it may be purely coincidental) (Screw it, I was on to something like Nancy Drew Scooby Doo!) I stumbled across this article over at Deadspin:

We're not the only ones who noticed that Bill Simmons hasn't written a column in two weeks — until today, anyway — and hasn't been featured much on the home page of ESPN.com. We figured it was nothing; the man has taken extended breaks before. But, just to be thorough, we emailed him and asked if anything was up. His response, on the record, surprised us. Here's Simmons' complete remarks on his (relative)
absence from ESPN.com over the last month or so.

Yes, I still work for ESPN. No, I'm not writing for ESPN.com as much — my choice, not theirs. That's just the way it will be from now on, unfortunately. I'd have more to say, but I'd end up being profane and I don't want to offend Buzz Bissinger.

When we inquired further, Simmons went on:

I still love writing my column and only re-signed last year because I really did believe that we had hashed out all the behind the scenes bullshit and come to some sort of agreement on creative lines, media criticism rules, the promotion of the column and everything else on ESPN.com. Within a few months, all of those things changed and certain promises were not kept. It's as simple as that.

So yeah, that's pretty interesting. (for those who follow this stuff...not so much for MLW) The article then goes on to share that Simmons has been posting some old stuff here on his own site here: http://sportsguy.blogspot.com/

Hmmm...so are we seeing some sort of throw down between the Sports Guy and ESPN? I believe he has enough of an audience that people would follow him if he went someplace else...there's just the problem of finding him.

Maybe he should ask Dan whatshisface how that's working out for him?