god is that female tennis playing grading shit upthread for real? what a piece of work.
― Clay, Friday, 27 January 2012 02:53 (twelve years ago) link
yeah them uncovering this shit is pretty awesome but when grantland started and they made a list of every nitpicky factual error it seemed pretty stupid
― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, 27 January 2012 03:40 (twelve years ago) link
well they demonstrated that it's pretty weird to start a website of professional writing that does not employ any ediotrs.
― call all destroyer, Friday, 27 January 2012 03:45 (twelve years ago) link
Look, I don't want to be captain save-a-simmons here. He is an asshole. I mean, you can't even blame this horrible tennis article on "He was young, he didn't know better. That's why he's kept all these articles hidden so long; he was too embarrased" because he writes this shit all the time! Like his "Women should be forced to have their own fantasy leagues!" rant not too long ago, the prick.
― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 27 January 2012 04:23 (twelve years ago) link
imo simmons is who he is, don't really have enough time in my day to get all fake appalled over his dumb fratty bullshit, i mean duh of course he wrote this article
― tebow gotti (k3vin k.), Friday, 27 January 2012 04:25 (twelve years ago) link
seriously who has that big a problem with women in a fantasy league. like yeah it sucks when someone's wife signs up b/c you didn't have enough people to run a league and winds up winning despite not knowing a single player she drafted but I think that's just because it reminds us all there is minimal skill in fantasy football and therefore bragging about how you dominated your league "for the last two years, bro" means nothing
― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, 27 January 2012 04:45 (twelve years ago) link
seriously who has that big a problem with women in a fantasy league. like yeah it sucks when someone's wife signs up b/c you didn't have enough people to run a league and winds up winning despite not knowing a single player she drafted
lol well i don't know that it "sucks" but it's funny, my wife won our fantasy league for the second year in a row this year, mostly b/c she likes drew brees and is a big halo benders/beat happening fan (and therefore drafted calvin johnson.)
― omar little, Friday, 27 January 2012 04:48 (twelve years ago) link
haha
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 04:49 (twelve years ago) link
time to channel my inner Simmons:
It's like, you know, that guy at the Blackjack table, who's playing horribly, hitting 14's vs. a 6, not splitting his 10's vs. a 5, and yet he's winning every hand. Meanwhile you're betting triple what he is and getting killed by 21's every time you get dealt a pair of bitches. THAT'S what my friend's wife does to this fantasy league.
― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, 27 January 2012 04:56 (twelve years ago) link
frog bill simmons
― dayo, Friday, 27 January 2012 11:56 (twelve years ago) link
lul
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 12:27 (twelve years ago) link
frogland
― joepa mi pinga (am0n), Friday, 27 January 2012 15:31 (twelve years ago) link
and is a big halo benders/beat happening fan (and therefore drafted calvin johnson.)
― omar little, Thursday, January 26, 2012 11:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
lmao
― call all destroyer, Friday, 27 January 2012 15:37 (twelve years ago) link
yeah I feel like there's some thread on ILX that deserves to be curated in.
― dayo, Friday, 27 January 2012 15:40 (twelve years ago) link
why does deadspin feel the need to mercilessly bash bill simmons and grantland at every opportunity?
uh because grantland will publish one or two well written pieces that ~makes u think~ but then publish 1157 articles of shit like "what if (x) on reality show was on reality show (x)" and "why does Michael Jordan dress up as the R&B Steven Seagal?" (totally forgetting that MJ does not have the major paunch or slicked back hair or crazy bad Asian outfits for such an endeavour)
― Born To Meat Pie (King Boy Pato), Friday, 27 January 2012 21:02 (twelve years ago) link
tbf theyve been on the Simmons beat since way before grantland, they h8 him cause he was their boyhood idol but now that theyve grown theyre embarrassed of him, particularly since he did m/l invent the thing theyre doing, they admitted as much, also im sure its good 4 hits
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 21:10 (twelve years ago) link
lol exactly, Simmons was Deadspin before Deadspin in a way, and really one of the first sportswriters that seemed to be on the same wavelength as the fans
― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, 27 January 2012 21:15 (twelve years ago) link
yah same wavelength as the fans was simmons credo, now days we call that 'blogging"
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 21:20 (twelve years ago) link
there was def something appealing about simmons in the early espn days, pre-bosox world championship when there was something universal and poetic about his sports fan pain but i feel it soon calcified into schtick and he didn't really take his style as a writer into better places. and beyond that i find his sexual politics to be really kind of nasty and cruel. he's still vastly better as a stylist than he was during the days he wrote that tennis piece.
― omar little, Friday, 27 January 2012 21:31 (twelve years ago) link
especially when you compared him to writers like Rick Reilly who were constantly moralizing everything and writing lengthy articles about issues nobody cared about. I mean BoSox fans are pretty terrible in general but at least Simmons was "one of us", so to speak
― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, 27 January 2012 21:33 (twelve years ago) link
speaking as a boston native and someone who journeyed home to experience the red sox winning their first championship of my lifetime, bostonians were really dialed into simmons during that series, everyone was talking abt his columns, it was now that i think abt it kinda remarkable
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 21:36 (twelve years ago) link
his basketball writing is still good from time to time, but the schtick has long since calcified for sure
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 21:37 (twelve years ago) link
so long as he sticks to writing about basketball he's fine. it's when he says crap like "the Colts intentionally threw a playoff game in 2007 because they knew they weren't going to beat the Patriots anyway" when you realize that he's kind of an insufferable prick
― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, 27 January 2012 21:43 (twelve years ago) link
feel like if youre a professional writer for long enough its hard to resist the drift towards overfit narrative and/or trolling at the expense of making sense
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 21:44 (twelve years ago) link
wait why did i think lagun was a yankees fan?
― tebow gotti (k3vin k.), Friday, 27 January 2012 22:26 (twelve years ago) link
lol dude
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 22:29 (twelve years ago) link
mb i'm thinking of max
― tebow gotti (k3vin k.), Friday, 27 January 2012 22:30 (twelve years ago) link
deadspin goes after simmons and grantland because he and it are establishment media, plain and simple
― J0rdan S., Friday, 27 January 2012 22:31 (twelve years ago) link
naw theyve got a special thing for him
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 22:32 (twelve years ago) link
i mean they literally published a piece owning up to a while ago
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 22:33 (twelve years ago) link
the best argument against him I've read was something about how ESPN and Simmons need each other, how ESPN needs Simmons to prevent themselves from looking too controlling and one-sided, as he has opinions that are often controversial and un-PC, while Simmons needs ESPN because it allows readers to feel like he actually is wittier/edgier than his Disney-sponsored articles imply
― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, 27 January 2012 22:34 (twelve years ago) link
well he's easily the biggest sportswriter in the country, it's not crazy that they write a lot about him
― J0rdan S., Friday, 27 January 2012 22:35 (twelve years ago) link
frogbs, ESPN doesn't need simmons because he gives them an edge. ESPN needs simmons cuz he's the most popular sportswriter in america and brings in a massive readership.
― J0rdan S., Friday, 27 January 2012 22:36 (twelve years ago) link
jordan what i said abt him being their idol and then them feeling weird abt it is what they said u should read it
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 22:37 (twelve years ago) link
it was by will lietch sometime in like the last 3 years iirc
its more about how they need a guy *like* Simmons. obviously there's nothing about BS in particular that makes him worthy of his popularity, but rather the idea that he's an ESPN-sponsored columnist who appears to be unrestricted
― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, 27 January 2012 22:37 (twelve years ago) link
― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, January 27, 2012 5:37 PM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
i disagree w/ this -- if simmons left espn, his readership would follow him. if espn brought in a second rate version of simmons, that person would not do the same numbers.
― J0rdan S., Friday, 27 January 2012 22:39 (twelve years ago) link
― lag∞n, Friday, January 27, 2012 5:37 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
will leitch's constant self-conscious navel gazing has little to do w/ the current incarnation of deadspin
it's when he says crap like "the Colts intentionally threw a playoff game in 2007 because they knew they weren't going to beat the Patriots anyway" when you realize that he's kind of an insufferable prick
He says stuff like this about basketball ALL THE TIME
― polyphonic, Friday, 27 January 2012 22:41 (twelve years ago) link
I don't think very many people would follow frog bill simmons, even if frog bill simmons were writing for espn.com
― dayo, Friday, 27 January 2012 22:41 (twelve years ago) link
if Grantland wasn't backed by ESPN I would think it would be a miserable failure
― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, 27 January 2012 22:42 (twelve years ago) link
If some dumb lady wants to be in my fantasy league I will happily take her money.
― polyphonic, Friday, 27 January 2012 22:43 (twelve years ago) link
― J0rdan S., Friday, January 27, 2012 5:39 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
dude read the thing, it included an anecdote abt him and aj daulario and i think another deadspin guy excitedly watching the first ep of jmmy kimmel live because simmons wrote for it, he was their hero
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 22:43 (twelve years ago) link
― frogs you are the dumbest asshole (frogbs), Friday, January 27, 2012 5:42 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
this is sort of an unsolvable chicken/egg thing
― J0rdan S., Friday, 27 January 2012 22:50 (twelve years ago) link
if simmons went solo hed still do well but obvs not as good as on espn
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 22:53 (twelve years ago) link
like he could just have a blog and get a shit ton of hits and not have to share the money w/anyone
― lag∞n, Friday, January 27, 2012 5:53 PM (14 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
of course not, which is why he's never left them. also he has the security of a salary, which is presumably very high.
― J0rdan S., Friday, 27 January 2012 22:54 (twelve years ago) link
i think he probably would've left espn by now but they realized his value and agreed to let him take on two pet projects in 30 for 30 and grantland
― J0rdan S., Friday, 27 January 2012 22:55 (twelve years ago) link
i imagine hes secure many times over by now
― lag∞n, Friday, 27 January 2012 22:55 (twelve years ago) link
yeah... i think he's said as much interviews that espn helping him do 30 for 30 was a big deal in terms of him staying there, and grantland presumably falls in the same category
― J0rdan S., Friday, 27 January 2012 22:57 (twelve years ago) link