Share:

In an NFL season that has been filled with controversy and turmoil through the first month of the 2014 regular season, the drama continues. This time, the biggest sports network in America, ESPN, is now involved.

ESPN’s own Bill Simmons has his own pod cast known as “The BS Report.” Last week, he launched a tirade on-air about how the NFL has been dealing with the entire Ray Rice scandal, calling the NFL’s Commissioner, Roger Goodell, a “liar.”

“He is lying. I think that dude is lying. If you put him up on a lie-detector test, that guy would fail.” Simmons said of Goodell’s claim that he hadn’t seen video of Ray Rice punching his wife until it was broadcast on the internet. He then went on daring his employer to actually punish him.

“I really hope somebody calls me or e-mails me and says I’m in trouble for anything I said about Roger Goodell, because if one person says that to me, I’m going public,” he said. “You leave me alone.” ESPN took his dare and suspended Simmons for three weeks.

ESPN and the NFL have a big partnership with each other. So of course ESPN will frown upon any of their employees’ disapproval of the NFL. But why suspend them? Bill Simmons was only speaking his thoughts about this whole scandal. Does ESPN not know that many people in America agree with Simmons? Does ESPN really still think that Roger Goodell should be glorified after this saga? Everyone knows that Goodell really fumbled this entire scenario. He even admitted to it himself.

So why can’t ESPN accept that and let their employees publicize their own stance on the issue. Every single person has the right to their own opinion.

In an article on Slate, the executive editor said it was “absurd that Simmons was suspended for backing up his colleagues’ own reporting.” Also, ESPN doesn’t make sense in the fact that Simmons received a three-week suspension, after Stephen A. Smith, another ESPN employee on the network’s own show The First Take, received just a one-week suspension for saying that women need to stop provoking men into attacking them. That does not make any sense.

This entire issue with Ray Rice has really taken a toll on the NFL and ESPN. Though it’s wrong that ESPN suspended Simmons, even for longer than the original suspension given out to Ray Rice by the NFL, no one has really any say in it, with two major, expensive corporations at the helm.

“A powerful man whose self-conception demands that he speak truth to power, and a massive corporation that wants him to know who’s still in charge,” states Josh Levin on his same article. It’s true, that big corporation and big business will always have greater power than only one man.

Follow: