Bill Simmons knows all about crossing the bosses at ESPN. While one could argue his insubordination cost him his career in Bristol, Simmons thinks Jemele Hill will only emerge bigger and better amid the fallout after she called President Donald Trump a "white supremacist."
During a Friday mailbag on The Ringer, Simmons was asked whether it bothered him that, while he was suspended by ESPN president John Skipper for calling NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a "liar," Hill escaped with a slap on the wrist for describing Trump and his supporters as racists.
Simmons said he wasn't bothered. In fact, he admires the way Hill "checkmated" her bosses.
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ESPN now needs Hill more than Hill needs ESPN, according to The Sports Guy:
"Neither of us should have been suspended. But I enjoyed how brilliantly Jemele checkmated her bosses. She knew ESPN couldn’t punish her for speaking candidly, as a black woman, about a president whose pattern of behavior toward women and minorities speaks for itself. She used her platform and it worked. Now, she has a higher profile than she did three days ago. She seems more fearless and genuine than she did three days ago. She doubled down on a fan base that already liked her and openly shunned the other side. And she flipped her relationship with ESPN — now, the company needs Jemele Hill more than she needs the company.
Simmons thought he was bigger than ESPN until Skipper dropped a dime to Richard Sandomir of the New York Times announcing to the world that he was not renewing Simmons' contract. Simmons' career has been in decline since, with HBO cancelling his critically panned talk show "Any Given Wednesday."
Is Hill in trouble at ESPN? Absolutely not, sources tell Sporting News.
After delivering a non-apology apology, Hill returned to her 6 p.m. SportsCenter show with Michael Smith without even a one-day suspension. Hill stated her brief absence from social media was her call, not that of ESPN.
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The biggest thing going for Hill: She expressed political sentiments about the Republican president that almost all of her left-leaning bosses at ESPN and parent company Disney agree with but are too scared to express themselves.
"There will be no fallout because everybody's liberal there," said one former ESPNer familiar with management's thinking. "Skipper, (new No. 2) Connor (Schell), (Disney CEO) Bob Iger? They all agree with her."
