I actually like those spots with his Dad, better than a lot of the crap he puts on his podcast. The perspective of someone who has been a diehard Boston sports fan for 50+ years is worthwhile. This past one wasn't great, but in general I'd much rather listen to that than the worthless "guess the lines" crap that is basically the only football talk he has on the podcast anymore. (A couple of years ago, Simmons had a weekly football podcast with Michael Lombardi and anothr with Aaron Schatz. Those were usually damned good.)ConigliarosPotential said:I've always been much more of a Simmons defender than detractor, but I've never, ever been tempted to listen to him talk to his father on the podcast. It's one thing to listen to two buddies talk to each other, but to a father and son? I never saw the point or the attraction.
Schatz has said on Twitter he's available and just needs an invite.southshoresoxfan said:Yeah why no Schatz and Millman anymore?
Number45forever said:No kidding. I'm as big a Simmons fanboy as there is and that podcast is absolutely fucking mind numbing. This plays into the worst of Simmons with the insane conspiracy theories he's always pimping. This whole week has been an exercise in stupidity.
Haven't gotten to it yet, but is the second half of this podcast with J-Bug any better?
southshoresoxfan said:Yeah why no Schatz and Millman anymore?
Morning Woodhead said:I rip on Simmons enough, that I have to give him credit when he earns it. On the Al Michael's podcast, Al started talking about the week after the Chiefs game (leading up to Cincy) when the hatchets were out for the Pats. Al said something along the line of "Dan Shaughnessy, who is the voice of the Boston fan".. and Bill stopped him and said "I can't let you say that on my podcast, because he is most definitely not". I thought it was great.
Full disclosure, I have not finished listening to the podcast yet, hopefully they didn't talk Pats again.
Mays and Pierce had stuff up this morning. This should have been ready to rip this morning for all the time zones. I'm sorry, it just should have.PBDWake said:I mean, I shit on Simmons when I think its called for, but he's in LA and his columns go up Friday. It's 8:30 AM over there. His guys probably aren't even in the office yet.
His pieces never go up before like 3 ET. Not sure why you think this would be any different.DegenerateSoxFan said:Mays and Pierce had stuff up this morning. This should have been ready to rip this morning for all the time zones. I'm sorry, it just should have.
Of course, we spent the last two weeks talking about cheating and footballs and PSI. Physics professors got involved. Multiple media members embarrassed themselves, breathlessly reported bad info or came off like complete hypocrites, although I guess that’s nothing new. There was one 24-hour span last week, right after Belichick seemingly threw Brady under the bus and a rattled Brady rambled in front of reporters for about 15 minutes too long, when it seemed like the Belichick-Brady dynasty was actually imploding. The weekend rolled around, the moment passed, the entire Patriots team shifted into F.U. mode, and that was that.
Q: How scared are you that Russell Wilson seemingly claimed Eli’s Lucky Up-The-Ass Horseshoe and became the luckiest QB alive? I mean, you can totally see him somehow escaping a sure sack and throwing a Hail Mary that bounces off three defenders before getting wedged into a receiver’s facemask for the Super Bowl winning score, right?
—Evan, Tucson, AZ
Q: Lions lose in gut wrenching fashion to Cowboys.
Cowboys lose in gut wrenching fashion to Packers.
Packers lose in gut wrenching fashion to Seahawks.
Seahawks lose in gut wrenching fashion to Pats.
—Chris, Austin
I briefly heard the interview and agreed it was good. I found it funny that Cowherd called him out on only being 4 in that Orr playoff game and bill ignored it.JimD said:He was on Cowherd's radio show yesterday and it was a pretty good listen. He did seem to genuinely revert to being the Boston Sports Guy when he talked about the game (his reaction to Kearse's catch, still being superstitious about recording the game, where this win stands in comparison to other iconic Boston sports moments). Maybe he's got a good column in him yet about this win.
Mark Schofield said:
Silverdude2167 said:I have never once listened to his Dad. I guess it is nice of him to involve him and they are obviously very close, but he is on his podcast way to often and brings nothing of substance to it.
John Marzano Olympic Hero said:It hit me last night as I was shoveling, Bill Simmons is the sports writer equivalent of Fred Lynn.
As soon as he left Boston, things went downhill quickly.
John Marzano Olympic Hero said:It hit me last night as I was shoveling, Bill Simmons is the sports writer equivalent of Fred Lynn.
We thought he fell asleep. We thought he froze. Repeat: We thought Bill Belichick froze.
You know what really happened? Belichick trusted seven months of practice and two weeks of scouting, and he trusted the fact that he’d already prepared a 24-year-old undrafted rookie to react perfectly, historically and remarkably if that slant was coming. He’ll never get credit because the whole thing seemed too improbable. After all, how could a coach behave THAT differently from every other coach in that exact same spot?
12:10 (First-and-10, NE 32): After Brady got sacked on first down and threw a four-yard out on second down, the reeling Pats are facing an uber-crucial third-and-14 on New England’s 28. Does the normally superb NBC crew use this specific moment to bring up Deflategate, question Brady’s integrity and show Roger Goodell sitting glumly in his suite? Of course it does! Here’s how it sounds.
Cris Collinsworth: “I said, ‘Tom, look me in the eye … ’”
(Look me in the eye? What are you, his ninth grade principal? Didn’t you already tell us this story in the pregame show? And why are you bringing this up right before the biggest third down of my season?)
Collinsworth: “‘ … and tell me you couldn’t have possibly said anything to a ball boy, an assistant coach, somebody in the organization to lead them to believe that you wanted air let out of the football.’”
(Hold on, we’re on the edge of our seats. I don’t even care that my entire football season is on the line with THE CURRENT F’N PLAY. What did Brady say? Did he confess? I really hope he confessed, because I can’t think of another reason you’re bringing this up right now.)
Collinsworth: “And he said, ‘Absolutely not.’ He could not have been more emphatic.”
(Great. Great news. Also, if this were about Peyton Manning, Collinsworth would have thrown in, “And I wasn’t even a little surprised, because someday, we’re going to use Peyton Manning’s hemoglobin to cure cancer.”)
I'm with Theo, this article was fantastic and encapsulated everything I felt culminating with this:TheoShmeo said:I liked it a lot. I thought he captured a lot of what I think many of us were going through during the end of that game and in the aftermath.
His comments about why this one meant a lot resonated. Not that any of it was particularly novel but I thought it was well said.
And the reader's point about the Kearse catch being Boone 2003 and the Butler play being the 0-3 comeback, all in the matter of seconds rather than a year, was terrific. It wasn't Bill's work but it was still something he recognized as dead on.
I'm neither a Simmons lover or hater. I just thought this bit of work captured things well and I agree with Joe Dokes that his take on Carroll was strong.
When you’ve been rooting for the same people for 15 years, at some point the stakes become greater. You want that last exclamation-point title. (Just ask Spurs fans.) You want to feel like you rooted for a dynasty, or something close to it, instead of just “a team that won a couple of times.” You want to say that you rooted for the best coach ever and the best quarterback ever, and you want to be constantly amazed that they showed up to save your sad-sack franchise at the exact same time. Patriots fans took Deflategate personally, and with reason — it was a shoddily reported story that never added up. Belichick and Robert Kraft remained defiant that the team did nothing wrong; the fans followed suit. It’s always fun to root for a champ, but when it becomes “us against them,” it resonates in a totally different way.
That exclamation-point title happened only after a legitimately astounding sequence: Kearse’s stomach-punch catch; Belichick bucking conventional wisdom and mind-f’ing Carroll; Seattle sticking with a pass play against the wrong defense, looking disorganized and plowing ahead anyway; then Butler jumping the route like he was being fast-forwarded, crushing the receiver, holding on to a bullet pass AND lurching forward to avoid the safety. This sideline camera view of the pick was incredible
That is a very fair point, I am an ass and assuming it is terrible. Does it not suck?BrazilianSoxFan said:
How can you know if you never listened to him?