Another Round to Simmons
Uncategorized July 13th. 2007, 4:35pm
The beatdown continues. Bill Simmons had another chat Wednesday, and once again, he took a thinly-veiled shot at one of his own, ESPN radio host Colin “Shrutebag†Cowherd. Only this time, a moderator (presumably) from the four-letter scrubbed away the evidence. Fortunately, a reader was able to send us the exchange. Say what you will about Simmons, the man has a passionate following; while he was apparently on vacation last week, his mug got moved off the front of the .com for a day or two, and nearly a dozen people emailed us asking if something was up. Astute they are! After the jump, the latest body blow to the ‘Bag:
Chris (Orlando, FL): What are the odds of having The BS Report on ESPN Radio from 1pm-4pm in about 1 month?
SportsNation Bill Simmons: Zero. I’m not good enough and I’d never want to do a daily radio show
SportsNation Bill Simmons: I really like doing my podcast - think there’s some upside potential there, I like that you don’t have to take breaks and can just have a conversation with someone for 25-30 minutes.
According to a reader: “But what it said originally was: ‘Zero. I’m not good enough and I’d never want to do a daily radio show, plus I don’t like having to skim columnists articles just enough to slam them.’” We weren’t able to run this past Simmons, but perhaps some else noticed it.
If someone is willing to take one for the team and let their ears bleed while waiting for a rebuttal, we’d love to hear it.
[A little birdie told us that Cowturd's divorce was finalized this morning. Another birdie told us to pass along to our readers that if your wife is taking a spinning class at the gym, be wary of Cowturd's advances. Apparently, that's where he makes his move. All you Connecticut guys in the house - make sure you go to the gym with your girl. Just a little public service announcement on this slow Friday afternoon.]
61 Responses to “Another Round to Simmons”
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July 13th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
It also said in there something along the lines of, “Radio hosts steal their work from blogs, skim columnists’ stories without reading enough to fully understand them … and there are too many breaks.” The not-so-veiled shot at Fecal Matter Face was definitely in there.
July 13th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
There was much more to his original quote than just that, so I wouldn’t post that as a so-called direct quote of his.
He included “ripping off blogs” as well as one other point that I can’t specifically remember. I guess an even more direct shot. Didn’t think of it at the time but I should probably now screenshot all of his chats since this always seems to happen.
July 13th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I remember it ending on sort of an upnote, like “it’s a thankless job.” The impression I got was that he thought a daily radio show host sort of had to do it in order to fill the time.
That said, Cowherd is the worst. I remember him going on a rant about David Bowie being no good one day, and pronouncing his name Boo-wee. Who doesn’t know how to pronounce that guy’s name by now? Idiot.
July 13th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
He definitely said that and if memory serves correct he also made a comment about rippiing off blogs
July 13th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Well looks like I was beat to it, but yeah, all around a quality shot.
And yesterday was the first time I ever listened to a Simmons podcast and I only got about ten minutes in before I decided to watch TV instead, but I actually liked it, some entertaining stories and info from Kimmel on there. Although when they talked about Leinart apparently not wanting to be anywhere near Manning, I can’t believe Simmons didn’t note the scenario behind it — Leinart firing the agent he shared with Manning since he was pissed Manning got an SNL gig before him.
July 13th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
you people are wild
this is not about cowherd; its a knock on sportstalk radio in general and, more specifically, ESPN radio hosts — all of them.
does everything have to be about - or a put down of - Colin Cowherd around here?????
July 13th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
I read the chat too as it was in progress. I can’t believe how many times now Simmons has been censored. Then again, I can because it’s ESPN.
July 13th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
I read that yesterday too, and the initial answer was something like “I don’t ever want to do radio … it’s way too long, and you end up taking silly stances on things, ripping off blogs, and skimming columnists’ pieces just enough to slam them.” A more thinly veiled shot at Cowherd, there never was.
July 13th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Yea, I think I absolutely will not worry about Cowherd on a spin bike, poses exactly no threat to me. My girl would take one look at the guys westward pointed nose and the door would be closed, locked, and shuttered. Of course I don’t live in Bristol, but I do live in Portland. He is here sometimes and I pray beyond pray he does not come back after he is canned be the network.
Cowherd’s rants are awful and uninformed. The dude is flat out wierd, not funny, not talented, and annoying as all hell.
July 13th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Cowherd’s only really on point when talking college football, probably because that’s the only topic he’s really passionate about
Everything else he’s trying to be Rome and get guys with rants
July 13th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
OK, I love the name “Shrutebag.” But I have to ask… from where did it come?
July 13th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Cowherd is just an incredible hack and has very little knowledge of the sports he discusses. After Kornheiser left I gave him a chance, but he’s like a morning zoo guy trying to talk about sports.
I heard him on one occasion asking Tony Stewart if he had met Joe Gibbs, who had only been his race team owner for several years. Stewart was amazed at the level of the stupidity of the question, saying something to the effect of “of course, I’ve met him.”
That’s second only in the level of absurdity to the time he went on a tirade
about how baseball players through the 1950s, couldn’t compete with today’s ballplayers.
That’s a questionable argument already, but then he tried to say that after a certain year, say 1963, those players then could compete with today’s players. I remember Dan Patrick calling in and challenging him on it. Of course, the Bag continued to just spout off, without any factual backing for his argument.
After that, I’d had enough. It’s a shame he has any audience, but most of the listening public are lemmings who’ll listen to anyone who screams.
And ESPN will throw money at any hack as long as they are loud and obnoxious.
July 13th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Has Simmons become the most ‘mainstream’ underground guy? His transformation perplexes me. It’s very WWF-like (or whatever they call it)
July 13th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
I knew the Shrutebag was an idiot when he was talking before the DLH/Mayweather fight about how he used to be a big boxing fan, but that the sport just doesn’t excite him much anymore…and he was talking about the fight, but he kept referring to Floyd Mayweather as Floyd Merriweather.
Idiot.
July 13th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Can someone help me and NDub out? Where did this Schrutebag nickname come from?
July 13th, 2007 at 5:57 pm
NDub,
It’s “Schrutebag” and it came from this episode, I believe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_Salesmen_%28The_Office_episode%29
July 13th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
It came from him calling for all of his listeners to spam this very website after there were links to some criticism of him on here, which resulted in TBL being shut down for a little less than a week from the slamming traffic.
Not sure if here or Deadspin or another site first coined the term to him though.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:08 pm
It came from KSK
July 13th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
http://kissmesuzy.blogspot.com/search/label/fucking%20fuckers
July 13th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Interestingly enough, in the same chat, he also took a shot at former ESPN ombud George Solomon when he asserted that the present ombud, LeAnne Schreiber, was a “huge upgrade” over the last one.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
OMG, I should have picked that up from the Office, it’s one of my favorite shows! I need a new job, this one is killing my remaining brain cells that weren’t already destroyed with booze. Thanks everyone!
July 13th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Why all this hate for Cowherd? Just because he doesnt read off stats for 3-4 hours? You guys should be thanking him. He gave you all that free press by mentioning your website (which I love) on the radio, that brought many many new viewers to the site. Then you dump on him… doesn’t make sense.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Who does KSK hate more, Simmons or Schrutebag?
July 13th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Big J, that’s ridiculous. You think Cowrinkle purposely did that to generate more readers for TBL? He’s just a moron on a power trip
July 13th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
No, by no means do I think he did that to help. I am not that dumb, but you can’t deny that one bad week turned into something much more positive. You’re telling me that TBL wouldn’t trade 1 crashed week for 500,000 more views/ a week or what not? He gave them a commercial, Amanda (I think that’s her name) said she likes this website, it’s not like they were like “crash this crappy website”, even though he told people to “bomb it”, there is an obvious posivite to it. That is what brought me here, I love this site, I check it everyday.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Doesn’t mean Schrutebag still isn’t a d-bag.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Yes, it’s probably true that more people came here to check out the site because of him. But it doesn’t make sense that bloggers dump on him? He purposely crashed TBL! It doesn’t matter what the outcome was, just that his intentions were fucked up
July 13th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
^^^ Thats pure 100% hate.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
I meant is was hate to NDUB, not Steve. Yeah, but if you trip and fall, scrap your face, but find $500 when you fall, isn’t that a good thing overall? Same thing in this situation. “Schrutebag” is easily the most entertaining out of Dan Patrick, Mike and Mike, Rome, the only radio host the I listen to that is more entertaining is Dan LeBatard. Many young people like Cowherd.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Umm, hate to tell you Big J, but intentionally overloading a server with the intent to bring it down is against the law. So it’s not 100% hate, it’s criminal.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Well that’s your opinion. I actually think Patrick was light years better than Schrutebag. But whether or not you like listening to Cowturd doesn’t mean what he did shouldn’t piss people off.
July 13th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Wrote my comment while yours was posting Big J, so I didn’t see the clarification. Still, it’s an ends don’t justify the means situation. Schrutebag was wrong to have done it and ought to have been fired; the fact that it worked out well in the end for TBL shouldn’t enter into the equation.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
I can see that, and thats your opinion. I think that if something bad turns into something good, then that is a good thing. Anyways, I just notice all the hate he gets, 24/7.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
cowherd told everyone on-air yesterday he would not be in today, that’s why kincade was hosting.
he’s actually been up-front with everyone about the divorce, probably because he knew it would eventually get leaked and discussed among the blogs.
-dan
July 13th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Personally, I don’t hate him for what he did to this website. I hate him because he is a no talent hack that pollutes the airwaves, preventing me from getting my sports fix in the morning.
I love coming here and bagging on him though. If enough people call him out, maybe, just maybe he will go away…back to his college drop out ways (he once even claimed he played basketball for EWU while he was on air-he didn’t).
July 13th, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Does anyone know why they got divorced? I bet it was because he was cheatin’.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Not that I should care, and I dont, but whatever.
Matt — That’s funny, I still think he is entertaining, and better than 90-95% of radio hosts out.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Today’s big story on the Four letter is Van Pelt having Will Leitch on to talk about blogs.
I don’t know how that’s possible, since ESPN won’t allow talent to make references to deadspin.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Does anyone have any idea who is taking over for Dan Patrick? Van Pelt would be a good choice to me. I don’t think he will be though.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
Van Pelt is just Sassy enough to take over for Patrick, the King of Sassiness.
ESPN can be referred to as CCCPESPN.
I haven’t been the cccpespn.com, the website in probably a year. I think the last time was when they opened comments.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I didn’t start reading this site until after ‘Herd mentioned it. It’s actually not bad, and I stop by a couple times a week at least. I am sure I’m not the only one.
FYI he said that you couldn’t compare FOOTBALL players from the 50’s to the football players of today, and then backed it up by talking about size and speed differences, strength training, and playcalling/game strategy. I thought he said you could compare baseball (post-integration) with the game these days. He drew a line and defined pre and post Jim Brown era - everything during and after Jim Brown could be compared fair game.
July 13th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
As bad and “criminal” as Cowherd’s intentions were at the time, TBL should be doing nothing less than thanking the heavens and singing his praises for the tripling/quadrupling site traffic. I can’t say anything based on site hits, but if the volume of comments are any indication…
Sadly, that was probably around the time this site started going downhill. But that’s another story for another time. I’m sure TBL still holds some ill will toward Cowherd, but deep down, you guys must be VERY pleased with how everything turned out. By the way, this whole Shrutebag name thing is incredibly lame. People calling him that are bigger “Shrutebags” (whatever that means) than he is. And I don’t even listen to Cowherd.
Also, to Alex a few posts above: A few weeks ago on PTI, Kornheiser mentioned deadspin a few times. At the end of the “TV time” part, as he was saying goodnight to Canada, he said something like “I’m gonna go home and read deadspin.”
July 13th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
^^Couldnt have been said better.
July 13th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
I liked GOOSE better when he called himself Skip Bayless
July 13th, 2007 at 8:16 pm
I’m not embarrassed to admit that I never read TBL until I heard about Schrutebag’s antics to crash the server. But, if it wasn’t “bad” then why did ESPN Ombudsman Lee Anne Schreiber write a column at ESPN.com about it? And why was Cowturd scolded by the WWL radio execs? Clearly, they thought he was a bad boy.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=schreiber_leanne&id=2830113
“Some of the politer terms my correspondents used to describe Cowherd’s behavior were immature, irresponsible, arrogant, malicious, destructive and dumb. I agree.”
Stop sticking up for him.
July 13th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
It was bad because he told people to crash the server, no one is disputing that. What people are saying is that, it turned into a good thing for TBL.
July 13th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Oh come it’s obvious who’s taking over for Dan Patrick
Linda Cohn
and hundreds of listeners experience instant narcilepsy, killing thousands
July 13th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Simmons is an effete wimp. Maybe HE’s the SportsGal………
July 13th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
What good are the new ‘hits’ on the site if they come to debate whether or not Schrutebag was good for TBL. I am sure they appreciate the audience, but more importantly, I am sure they appreciate the loyal readers who have been reading before someone launched an attack on the website. For someone who has been reading TBL for awhile, it was an enraging thing not to be able to access one of my daily stops. Did it ruin my life, no, but it was annoying.
The point is, Cowherd is just a talentless jock. And to whoever said he is popular with young people, speak for yourself. Everyone on my campus cannot stand the even thought of his unintelligible rants.
July 14th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Ahh of course…the inevitable and extremely original shot at Simmons. Later than expected though…
July 14th, 2007 at 12:59 am
TBL guys, come on. I love reading your site, but the only reason I EVER heard about you guys was because of Cowherd. Don’t be losers and be continuously pissed off at him just because he crashed your site one day (which eventually led to a tremedous increase in website hits, no doubt). Grow a pair and move on girls!
July 14th, 2007 at 1:26 am
this Cowherd hate is getting ridiculous. he’s ok, he’s an idiot at times but you can’t deny his success. i heard about this site because of Cowherd. since then, ive been on this site everyday. This blog is funny except for cowherd ‘hate rants’ that’s getting pretty old. its beginning to be like a rehashed article.
July 14th, 2007 at 2:45 am
I’ll admit to being an occasional Cowherd listener. And he is the reason I even figured out that sports blogs (a) existed (b) were worthwhile and (c) were NOT written by unemployed losers living in their mother’s basements…well, not all at any rate. Pretty sure I am not the only one. But, admittedly, the guy is a loser. I find him entertaining from time to time, though. That might be because of the heavy drinking I did whilst I was in the Navy though…
July 14th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
I’m baffled that ESPN’s two least knowledgable personalities can’t have a sit down and reflect on just how short-sighted and arrogant they both truly are. Maybe they’ll decide that they have so much in common that they’ll rip each other’s clothes off and consumate their love-hate relationship.
Nah, Cowturd doesn’t look like Kevin Durant. So that would never happen.
July 14th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
I came back from honeymooning to this same lame beef?
Cowherd is a clownboot, Simmons is above tolerable.
End of demo.
July 15th, 2007 at 5:43 am
I stopped caring about Cowturd. The only thing mentioning his name does is give him more attention. I stopped listening to his show and ESPN Radio all together.
But who knows, maybe he’ll get “Burned.”
July 15th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Colin Cowshit is a waste of a life.
July 15th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Cowherd is not a good journalist. Terrible interviewer. He said to Jim Leyland, “I don’t believe I’ve ever interviewed you before..” Really?
And when he takes callers, it’s usually those who praise him- “Love your show, Colin” and parrot his opinion. Real interesting radio. He dissconnects callers who disagree with him while continuing the conversation so he gets the last word. An idiot. The only part of the show that’s even listenable is Scanning the Globe because the beat writers sometimes have something to offer.
July 15th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
I might as well get this off my chest. Can the ESPN Radio personalities shut up about their personal lives? Not a show goes by where we don’t hear about Seibel’s kid or Kinkade’s wife or what they did on their day off. Hey fellas, nobody cares. I blame this on Kornheiser but at least when he did it, it was funny.
July 16th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
What Cowherd did wasn’t “criminal,” it was criminal and illegal.
If someone punches you and you fall next to a $50, you can be glad you found the $50 and still have every right to be pissed off at the guy that punched you.
July 20th, 2007 at 11:09 am
His show is entertaining, but nowhere near the level that he thinks it is. His pseudo-intellegence is what bothers me the most about his show. He is often wrong about the outcome of situations yet he is never questioned about them, nor does he admit his mistakes (remember the ‘Alabama might as well get Jim Grobe, hes the best coach they can hope for. Alabama fans are dilusional if they think they have shot with a guy like Nick Saban’ debate? He went on and on about that for weeks and when he was wrong he responded by attacking Saban).
I never realized how goofy he looked until I found some video on the internet. Based on the way he talks about being a ‘playah’ (really, what kind of 40 year old dad talks like that?) I assumed he commanded some sort of ladies’ man persona, but I found that to be far from the case. He’s the kind of guy that walks into the gym, hits on all the women and trys to hang out with the guys 20 years his younger. Never realizing that the second he leaves everyone makes fun of him.