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Bill Simmons was a guest on theDan Patrick Show today. Clearly, the Ballghazi report was the topic of conversation.Having had some time to digest everything, Simmons was not in asmuch of full-on homer mode as yesterday, and, while impugning the NFL for a characteristically haphazard investigation, did not come out in total defense of Tom Brady. Some highlights:
- Simmons started: Im glad youre bringing on Tony Dungy.That will be a balanced take. All these people whose butts were kicked by the Patriots over the last 15 years, now in the media, coming out and acting hysterically about deflategate Bill Polian, Tony Dungy, Marshall Faulk.
- He thinks Brady shouldhave handled this better in the immediate aftermath. Maybe the b***s were at the low end of regulation and there were various, illegal-but-legalways to bring their PSIs down?This shouldnt be something that haunts him for the next 60 years, but we know how sports works. This is gonna be brought up with him for the rest of his career. And it seems like such a low stakes thing. I wish he had just come out from the beginning clearly he knewsomething was going on I wish he had just been a little more forthright in the first week.
- He just handled it badly, Simmons said. And I dont know how you fix that. Because, as you know, this is a very unforgiving sports culture in 2015. Its all about extremes. Everythings either the best or the worst. Youre either the most dishonest person ever, or youre the best person ever. This is just the way sports is now. This is how we consume it.
- Simmons didnt find the Wells Report to be profoundlyconvincing in the evidentiary sense, and didnt blame Brady for not turning over his cell phone, especially in light of the NFLs habit of leaking everything.
Simmons and Patrick agreed that the NFL is gauging public reaction to the Wells Report in order to determine how they should proceed with discipline. Otherwise, wouldnt they announce it when the report was released? Theyre basing things off of reaction now, and they never used to do that, Patrick said. So the tail wags the dog with the NFL, which is kind of surprising.
Ill go further than you, Simmons said. I think its pathetic. Roger Goodellhas handled so many things so poorly that its reached a point now where you have something like this, where its taken four months to release the report, and he knew everything that was in it. He knows the results before the report is released to the public, and yet doesnt have the testicular fortitude to do anything about it until he gauges the public reaction.
If Goodell is indeed basing punishment based on some of the fire takes Ive seen (Woody Paige, for example, said Brady should be suspended for an entire season), the announced, pre-inevitable-appeal discipline is going to be of the fire and brimstone variety.
UPDATE:Since this post went up, Simmons and ESPN parted ways. Our site reported that the split had a lot to do with money; multiple other reports (hereand here) have cited this interview from yesterday as the tipping point in the fissure.
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