ESPN president John Skipper announced last week that the World Wide Leader will not be renewing Bill Simmons’ contract when it expires in September. Apparently Simmons is leaving much sooner than that.
How much sooner? According to Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated, Simmons is essentially already gone. He has worked out an agreement with ESPN where he will no longer appear on any platform, including the Grantland website that he founded in 2011. As of now, there are no plans for a farewell column, television appearance or anything of the like.
It seems fairly obvious that the relationship between Skipper and Simmons became strained in recent months.