Dan Le Batard talks about the Bill Simmons v. ESPN feud

ESPN’s Dan Le Batard sat down for an interview to discuss his new radio show, the bumbling NFL and the Bill Simmons fiasco.

The clean break between ESPN and its most famous writer Bill Simmons came as a shock to many who read his work. Since his departure from NBA Countdown and his fall suspension for criticizing NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, it was clear that the network, led by president John Skipper, and Simmons don’t get along. But the Grantland site gave the network valuable content, and the beginning of the Grantland Basketball Hour made it appear that the two parties were willing to work out their differences.

For The Win sat down with ESPN personality Dan Le Batard, who would often trade of hosting and being hosted by Simmons on their respective programs. He talked about his new radio/TV hybrid show, the aptly named Dan Le Batard Show, which will appear on Fusion on May 19 at 4PM ET, but his most interesting comments concerned Simmons and his break from ESPN.

From For The Win:

"It was interesting. He’s the most popular sportswriter in America. And ESPN has figured out how to allow anybody to leave. Nobody in the company is too important to ever get the [axe]. Anybody can leave without it harming ESPN. So when you get a situation that America’s most popular sportswriter is given a lot and wants more — whether it’s freedom or money — and on top of that you have a Bill Simmons that, it’s been reported, has issues with management. When you put those three together, ESPN’s going to let somebody go. The rest of us are just hanging onto them."

These comments more or less paint ESPN as a nation of its own, somethign with more influence than Lichtenstein. Maybe less powerful than Monaco – somewhere in between.

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No sportswriter or sports media entity is more powerful than ESPN. ESPN without Bill Simmons is still ESPN. There will be SportsCenter. There will be college football on autumn Saturdays. There will be the NBA, the MLB, Monday Night Football. Bars will have it on in the background. People will crane their necks upwards at any anchor’s face while on the treadmill. ESPN is not defined by one singular person, not even John Skipper.

Bill Simmons without ESPN isn’t the same Bill Simmons anymore. Perhaps without the shackles of a parent company like ESPN, the content he creates will blossom in full. Diatribes against Roger Goodell and the James Harden trade can be expanded without any concern for offense or even review. The beautiful Boston homerism will be made bare.

Free Simmons has content, but ESPN Simmons has access. He has the vehicle for content that will not only reach avid readers on his name recognition, it will reach casual readers on network recognition. It is easier to be directly involved with the players he covers, and he is afforded the opportunity to cover those players alongside other ESPN talent like Jalen Rose, Michelle Beadle, Dog Collins, and – clears throat – Sage Steele, talents that made his brand of fan-intensive analysis more palatable to the fans he is targeting.

Freedom could allow Simmons to expand his brand even further, but as it stands right now ESPN came out of the breakup in better position.

[H/T: For The Win]