50 Facts About Bill Simmons

William John Simmons III was born on September 25,1969 and is an American podcaster, sportswriter, and cultural critic who is the founder and CEO of the sports and pop culture website The Ringer.

Bill Simmons first gained attention with his website as "The Boston Sports Guy" and was recruited by ESPN in 2001, where he eventually operated the website Grantland and worked until 2015.

Bill Simmons founded The Ringer, a sports and pop culture website and podcast network, in 2016 and serves as its CEO.

Bill Simmons hosted Any Given Wednesday with Bill Simmons on HBO for one season in 2016.

Bill Simmons is known for a style of writing characterized by mixing sports knowledge and analysis, pop culture references, his non-sports-related personal life and for being written from the viewpoint of a passionate sports fan.

Bill Simmons was born on September 25,1969, to William Bill Simmons and Jan Corbo.

Bill Simmons's father was a school administrator, and his stepmother, Molly Clark, is a doctor.

Bill Simmons was an only child and grew up in Marlborough and Brookline, Massachusetts, before moving to Stamford, Connecticut, to live with his mother after his parents divorced when he was 13.

Bill Simmons attended the Greenwich Country Day School and then Brunswick School in Greenwich, Connecticut, for high school.

For eight years following grad school, Bill Simmons lived in Charlestown working various jobs before eventually landing a job at ESPN.

In 1997, unable to get a newspaper job, Bill Simmons "badgered" Digital City Boston of AOL into giving him a column, and he started the web site BostonSportsGuy.

Originally the column was only available on AOL, and Bill Simmons forwarded the column to his friends.

Bill Simmons began receiving e-mails from people asking if they could be put on his mailing list.

Bill Simmons refused for most of the summer because he did not want to cut back on his columns and move to the West Coast away from his family and Boston teams.

Bill Simmons has stated that he joined the show because he was burned out from his column, felt he needed a change, and always wanted to write for a talk show.

Bill Simmons left Boston and moved to California on November 16,2002 and began working in April 2003 as a comedy writer for the show.

Bill Simmons called it "the best move I ever made" and said it was one of the best experiences of his life.

Bill Simmons left the show in the spring of 2004 after a year and a half of writing for the show.

Bill Simmons wanted to focus full-time on his column, since his writing was starting to slip and he did not have enough time to work on columns or even think about them.

Bill Simmons gained fame as "The Boston Sports Guy" which earned him a job offer from ESPN in 2001 to write three guest columns.

In late 2004 ESPN launched an online cartoon based on his columns which Bill Simmons later called a "debacle" and decided to stop.

In 2005, according to ESPN, Bill Simmons' column averaged 500,000 unique visitors a month.

Bill Simmons served as executive producer on the project until he left ESPN in 2015.

Bill Simmons created one or two hourlong podcasts a week, generally carrying one theme throughout, talking to everyone from sports and media notables to his friends.

Bill Simmons began writing a bi-weekly 800-word column for ESPN The Magazine in 2002 but convinced ESPN after three years to give him 1,200 words.

On July 27,2009, Bill Simmons announced his retirement from the magazine but continued to write for the Page 2 website.

In October 2007, it was announced that Bill Simmons joined the television series E:60 as a special contributor.

Bill Simmons served as the editor-in-chief of Grantland, a website owned by ESPN covering sports and pop culture that launched on June 8,2011.

Months after it decided not to renew its contract with Bill Simmons, ESPN shut down the Grantland website on October 30,2015.

On July 22,2015, Bill Simmons announced he had signed a new multi-platform deal with HBO starting in October 2015.

Bill Simmons announced the launch of his new website, The Ringer, on February 17,2016.

At The Ringer, Bill Simmons serves as CEO, writing less than during his previous endeavors.

On October 1,2005, Bill Simmons released his first New York Times best-selling book, Now I Can Die in Peace.

In July 2008, Bill Simmons announced that he would be taking 10 weeks off from writing columns for ESPN.

When Bill Simmons first started his website, he wrote what he thought friends would enjoy reading because he never understood how people could be sportswriters while claiming they did not care which team won, in the name of journalistic objectivity.

Bill Simmons' writing in his columns is characterized by mixing sports knowledge, references to pop culture including movies and television shows, his non-sports-related personal life, his many fantasy sports teams, video games, and references to adult video.

The Red Sox asked Bill Simmons to run for the ceremonial position and he accepted.

Bill Simmons later removed himself from consideration and Remy was named president.

In September 2017, Bill Simmons voiced his support for Jemele Hill, who became involved in controversy after tweeting her personal views on Donald Trump.

Bill Simmons later clarified that the expletive was a joke and not a personal attack, and that he was simply indicating his preference for Herb Jones as a candidate for the All-Rookie team.

On May 24,2022, Bill Simmons hosted Jalen Green as a guest on his podcast, where the two discussed the controversy and cleared the air.

In May 2008, Bill Simmons was embroiled in a dispute with management at ESPN.

Bill Simmons was upset that his explanation of ESPN's refusal to allow him into the league was edited out of a podcast.

In late 2009, Bill Simmons was punished by ESPN for writing tweets critical of Boston sports radio station WEEI's The Big Show.

Bill Simmons was suspended for two weeks from Twitter, though he was still allowed to post tweets about his ongoing book tour.

Bill Simmons is married to Kari Bill Simmons, mentioned only as "The Sports Gal" in his columns.

Bill Simmons is a devoted fan of Boston's teams including the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, and Boston Celtics.

Bill Simmons was a longtime fan of the Boston Bruins and the NHL, but claims that their poor management led to his completely losing interest in them until the 2008 playoffs.

Bill Simmons says he is a fan of English Premier League soccer team Tottenham Hotspur, and he has had playful debates on soccer with previous ESPN colleague David Hirshey, a soccer columnist and a die-hard fan of Tottenham's fierce rival Arsenal.

Bill Simmons has created numerous internet memes, most notably the Ewing Theory, The Tyson Zone and the Manning Face.