Bill Simmons says he ‘elevated’ ESPN: ‘F–king killed it’

There’s no denying the impact Bill Simmons left on ESPN during his almost 15-year run with the Worldwide Leader.

The columnist-turned-decision-maker’s run ended in 2015 when ESPN opted not to renew his contract after a contentious year in 2014 that saw Simmons call NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a liar amid the league’s Ray Rice scandal.

Years later, there are no grudges held by the man who created The Ringer, though he’s fully aware of the effect he had — and continues to have — on ESPN.

“Super proud,” he told the “SI Media with Jimmy Traina” podcast of how he views his time working for there. “I was there for 14 years and I feel like I elevated that place in just a slew of ways. That’s it. I don’t think that’s bragging. I look back at the ESPN experience and I f–king killed it for those guys. There’s no question. And that’s it.

“I had the biggest column they ever had. The biggest book they ever had. The biggest podcast they ever had. And I co-created 30 for 30 and I created Grantland. And I did TV stuff. I did all kinds of things for them and it was all in a 14-year span and I’m really proud of it. I don’t have bad blood for ESPN. I look at that as that place elevated me and I elevated them so if people wanna aggregate that, that’s fine. That’s how I feel.”

There are no lingering emotions toward the outlet, which has seen leadership change over since Simmons’ departure.

“Anyone that was in the decision-making spot when I was there, they’re not there anymore,” he said. “Some of the reasons are, they probably weren’t that good, other reasons are they moved on.”

Not that there aren’t regrets on Simmons’ part — notably the infamous episode of his “B.S. Report” podcast in which he called Goodell a liar for claiming he didn’t know about the video of Rice, then a star running back with the Ravens, assaulting his wife in an elevator.

The words got Simmons, who had already been suspended from using Twitter twice by ESPN, suspended from the company and sped up his eventual exit.

“I’ve said this before: that was still slightly a mistake on my part,” he said. “It was a Monday, we were racing to get that up, it was too contentious. I don’t regret what I said about Goodell — I’m saying we could have made two small edits that would have made it just as impactful and not turned it into a me vs. ESPN story. I thought what I was saying about Goodell was really important.”

After his unceremonious ESPN departure, Simmons went on to found The Ringer, a media outlet that focuses on sports and pop culture and has embraced the podcast medium.