It has been over a decade since Bill Simmons left ESPN, but some of the scars still cut very, very deep.
It was back in 2015 when Simmons departed the Worldwide Leader after a series of creative differences and public disagreements. The Sports Guy had done it all at ESPN and became a household name nationwide. He helped launch 30 for 30 and Grantland, and he even served briefly as an NBA studio analyst. On top of that, The BS Report helped make podcasts the next big media medium.
It wasn’t long after Bill Simmons left ESPN that the network shut down publication of his vertical, Grantland. Despite an attempt to move forward with Chris Connelly at the helm, it lasted only a few months before shutting down entirely. Many of the writers Simmons hired for the outlet went with him to start The Ringer, which remains his home to this day.
Over the last decade, Simmons has sometimes shown a soft spot for his former employer. But this was not one of those occasions.
On the most recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, the host was taking mailbag questions when asked about a show from his buddy House at Grantland. That led him to go off the network. And thankfully we have the Bill Simmons Reddit Podcast X page to chronicle it all.
Bill Simmons EVISCERATES the “vindictive assholes” at ESPN for liquidating the Grantland YouTube channel
“They can go eat a big fat dick” https://t.co/XLWvXMy86Q
— The r/BillSimmons Podcast (@rBillSimmonsPod) October 9, 2026
“You can’t see it because a little after I left ESPN, for some reason, because they’re vindictive f*cking sh*thead assholes, they liquidated our Grantland YouTube channel. I still can’t believe they did it. There’s four years of videos that we did, a lot of them were ahead of their time. They were just like ‘f*ck it, we’ll just liquidate all of it.’ So they can go eat a big fat d*ck,” Simmons said.
Alrighty then!
For what it’s worth, the Grantland homepage and archives still do exist! But anything with a YouTube embed is unavailable. So if you want to relive Grantland’s glory days and watch decade-old videos from Joe House, unfortunately you are out of luck.
As far as the relationship between Bill Simmons and ESPN, never say never. If Keith Olbermann can return to the network, then anything is possible. But someone will have to answer for the Grantland YouTube page before anyone buries any hatchets.