The Bill Simmons Effect

T

TheFied

2,500+ Posts
At first, I thought that Bill Simmons was witty. Then I thought that he was just a bit long-winded. Now I find him annoying.

Over the past 2 years, I have begun noticing that I hate Boston sports more than normal. Red Sox, Celtics and Pats. I am even rooting for the Yankees over the Red Sox; hell even the Lakers over the Celtics.

Why? I think it is because Simmons talks and gloats about Boston sports in 99% of his articles now. I didn't realize it at first but I think I have become a Boston-hater because of Simmons. Anyone else?
 
I used to love Simmons but his shtick has gotten stale for me. I don't really hate Boston sports because of him though.
 
I understand that as a "columnist" he has a bit of leeway, but for him to be that parochial seems to be an obvious broken leg for ESPN. Boston is a great city, but "flyover country" has a few things going for it as well.
 
I still read most of his articles, but I do find myself rooting against all Boston sports teams just so I can experience the Simmons misery (similar to Aggy misery).
 
Boston has been the dominant sports town over the past decade so its hard to avoid reading about them.

Simmons writes a good NFL column but his complete ignorance of college football is annoying. But that is a criticism of most Northeast oriented writers. Few of them went to a football school so they could care less.
 
I already hated Boston, but he's made it 10x worse. He has a decent sense of humor and a great ability to plug in vague movie references, by itself would make me read his articles. But the Boston crap is such nonsense, if you're a sports junkie dork don't tell me how great your team is, just report some news and/or make me laugh. I don't give a **** about stories about you and your grand dad sitting around the fire jerking off to Larry Bird
 
Everyone who says that every article of his is about Boston isn't a regular reader.

His Elgin Baylor article from earlier this week was great. If an athlete had to put up with what Baylor had to go through just to PLAY in games, there's no comparing how difficult it would be.
 
I still like his columns. As noted above, the Elgin Baylor article was a good read.

Despite the fact that: (1) I do not have any special affinity for Boston sports; (2) I am no longer a fan of the NBA; and (3) my interest in the NFL has waned considerably, I still enjoy his stuff.

At least for me, I guess his humor, pop culture references and general take on things has been enough to overcome some subject matter issues.

Since Blackie Sherrod retired, there really haven't been many sports columnists that I regularly read and I am curious to hear some recommendations from others. I enjoy reading Gregg Easterbrook's TMQ column on ESPN.com (again, despite the fact that it is NFL-centered) and will occasionallly read articles by Gammons, Peter King or Plaschke, but it doesn't seem like the field is very strong. Any suggestions?
 
Agree with the OP.

I find I only read his Mailbags and non-Boston titled articles.

Is he ever gonna finish his top 100 Sports Movie reviews?
 
I still really like him and always read his articles. Today's Mailbag was very funny.

I hate Boston sports. HATE. He has no effect on my hatred. It doesn't bother me when he writes about them. I still hate them.
 
I like SImmons a whole lot and he is also the reason I root against Boston sports- if that makes any sense at all.

He writes a ton about them b/c he's from there and they deserve all the ink that they get.

If they weren't on the top of every sport we wouldn't be subjected to that much of it.

I like the fact he's gotten back into college hoops. I understand why he doesn't do college football (it's a lifestyle choice where plenty of men get either saturday's or sundays for watching football with time with the wife and family on the other day) but I wish that he did. BC sucks so bad that it's not like we'd be subjected to his homerism there (and they are a rival anyway so he hates them, and the only relevant NE college football team at all).
 
he doesn't care about college football because he went to holy cross. seriously. it's not a lifestyle choice for him. he ******* writes columns for a living and makes bank doing it. if he wanted to follow college football, he could. he just never did, so if he tried to write about it, i think it would be extremely contrived and hollow. or maybe not, but a lot of his columns evoke a wistful, "my life as a fan" kind of aura, and just some opinions or analysis on a sport he never cared about wouldn't work for him.

that said, he's a shell of his former self. you can pretty much pinpoint it to when he moved from boston to LA. it also coincides to when he made it really big, or his teams all made it really really big, but either way, he's lost a lot of his former charm. i used to read his boston columns back when he was pumping out three a week. they were great, even though i didn't care. i'd find myself reading about the ******* red sox, and i don't really even like baseball, but his writing was a lot edgier than anyone else page 2 had.

****, page 2 itself is a shell of its former self. used to have ralph wiley, a sports guy that wasn't mailing it in, hunter thompson, when he felt like it, etc. now it's just a goofyassed "make up a quote column" kind of site. i don't really even go there anymore, except to read tmq, who is also wearing on me with the over-the-top nicknames.

i'm turning into a sports curmudgeon.
 
I don't know if I agree with you about it not being a lifestyle choice. His columns are chock full of stuff about his wife (formerly girlfirends) giving him **** for watching and getting way to involved with sports.

I hear what you are saying about him getting paid to do it which is why I get a little bitchy whenever he talks about them comlaining about him watching games all day. I guess b/c it seems like the dream job so the idea that even the guy with that job gets **** from people for watching too much sports is like finding out santa isn't real, if that makes any sense.

I just get the sense there is a lifestyle component in there from so much that he says and the sports gals rants, but I could be all wet.

And I loved every single one of Wiley's non-race columns and liked even a few of his race columns. In an attempt to glorify the past though perhaps you have forgotten page 2 used to employ Jason Fatlock? He sucked **** through a straw.

I really like the TMQ and like his political rifs even though he comes from way left of the aisle compared to me. He's thoughtful and witty about it and I often give some consideration to whatever point he's making.
 
he's the same writer he was in 2000. Same schtick, same jokes, same perspective. I find that annoying. Sort of like how the new Indiana Jones movie was entertaining, but it was a 1984 movie made in 2008. That might not make any sense.
 
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