Malcolm Gladwell: Suspending Bill Simmons Was "totally the wrong decision" By ESPN

Malcolm Gladwell will appear on an upcoming interview with Bloomberg TV. Romenesko has the transcript, which included the author’s stances on Amazon (“It’s cost me a lot of money”) and his opinion that football is a “moral abomination.” Gladwell also spoke up about Bill Simmons, whose suspension “was totally the wrong decision” by ESPN. “I thought that in the course of expressing their opinions, sports columnists are allowed to draw conclusions,” Gladwell said. “Apparently not. Apparently you get suspended for that. I thought that was an embarrassingly low moment.”

We’ve been over this several times, but a pie chart revealing the actual reasons for Simmons’ suspension would show that it was about 10% calling Goodell (a longtime foe of the Sports Guy) a liar and 90% insubordination, no matter what factors comprise the official ESPN company line. Gladwell isn’t exactly a neutral bystander here. An occasional contributor to Grantland, he has appeared on the BS Report and participated in five posts with Simmons over the years where the two have exchanged emails back and forth.

This has been our near-daily installment of the Bill Simmons chronicles.