During a Friday mailbag on The Ringer, Simmons was asked whether it bothered him that, while he was suspended by ESPN president John Skipper for calling NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a “liar,” Hill escaped with a slap on the wrist for describing Trump and his supporters as racists.
Simmons said he wasn’t bothered. In fact, he admires the way Hill “checkmated” her bosses.
MORE: Kaepernick tweets support for Hill
ESPN now needs Hill more than Hill needs ESPN, according to The Sports Guy:
Simmons thought he was bigger than ESPN until Skipper dropped a dime to Richard Sandomir of the New York Times announcing to the world that he was not renewing Simmons’ contract. Simmons’ career has been in decline since, with HBO cancelling his critically panned talk show “Any Given Wednesday.”
Is Hill in trouble at ESPN? Absolutely not, sources tell Sporting News.
After delivering a non-apology apology, Hill returned to her 6 p.m. SportsCenter show with Michael Smith without even a one-day suspension. Hill stated her brief absence from social media was her call, not that of ESPN.
MORE: Hill’s statement amid tweet controversy
The biggest thing going for Hill: She expressed political sentiments about the Republican president that almost all of her left-leaning bosses at ESPN and parent company Disney agree with but are too scared to express themselves.
“There will be no fallout because everybody’s liberal there,” said one former ESPNer familiar with management’s thinking. “Skipper, (new No. 2) Connor (Schell), (Disney CEO) Bob Iger? They all agree with her.”
