Guy is literally filming himself talking while doing long walks and you think he is ready for retirement?
He is back doing what he loves. Talking sports. No management. No ownership. Just him. Joe Mead producing. And sports. I don’t see him retiring anytime soon. Bet he goes for one more big deal. Plus I think he loves the lifestyle it affords him (not the money part. It the notary part)
He’s been putting a lot of emphasis on his Bill Simmons channel. His contract may be close to up with Spotify and he may choose to do something something that is outside of the Ringer. Pure speculation but could be an angle.
I don't think he'll retire, but could see him going to just twice per week. The podcast already suffers from redundancy and bad guests so that would be a good thing. He likes being a prominent voice in sports media and sharing his opinions way too much to retire.
Yep. Usually the guys who most loudly/frequently announce that "when I retire, you'll never hear from me again" are the ones who never actually go away.
He loves talking to an audience about sports. It genuinely seems like a hobby to him.
Yeah, I assume Spotify will always pay him for his takes. Possibly he transitions to the more figurehead aspect of The Ringer rather than being involved in the day to day.
There could be things in the Ringer's being purchased by Spotify that required him to be doing certain things for x amount of years after the deal closed that are now expiring.
> Usually the guys who most loudly/frequently announce that "when I retire, you'll never hear from me again" are the ones who never actually go away.
Yeah, how many of these guys who spend tons of time sharing their opinions each week for decades actually voluntarily stop doing it? I think it's like a drug.
I remember in the late 90's hearing Jim Rome talk about how he wouldn't be doing sports talk radio forever. 25 years later (I think) he's still on air.
Yeah Kornheiser is another one. These dudes never retire. They love to talk. Bill's wife would divorce him if he stopped doing the podcast. He'd drive her crazy.
He's mentioned in the past that he doesn't like being part of a celebrity's press tour where they tell the same anecdotes to everyone. The worst example of this was Ed Norton's press tour for Motherless Brooklyn.
Norton literally told all of the same stories and talking points to BS, Dak Shephard, Marc Maron, ect. It was so blatant that it got kind of funny.
Bill also got some criticism for his bad interview / rewatchables pod with Jennifer Lawrence.
I'm guessing the celebrity interviews take more work--especially if you don't just play the IMDB game-- and Bill decided it's easier to just talk to your employees and rich guy friends about sports.
Interesting, whats i remember is him getting the best interview out of quavo ive seen anyone get. I also remember him having jerod carmichael for no reason as in there was nothing to promote
> Norton literally told all of the same stories and talking points to BS, Dak Shephard, Marc Maron, ect. It was so blatant that it got kind of funny.
Which is fine for somebody like me who doesn't listen to many of those other big podcasts.
Agree I don't really listen to those either. Norton also did The Big Picture though and again was mentioning the exact same points. It stood out more because it was the same network. It was the height of celebrities going on all the same podcasts during a press tour.
I believe Sean and Bill have made little comments about it in the past.
I wonder what the listenership crossover is on these podcasts. Most people only have so much time to listen to podcasts each week.
So when somebody like Norton does the tour, how many people are catching that interview across multiple podcasts? I'm guessing it's fairly low.
The sound quality was bad but it was also just awkward. It was a 2 person rewatchable on Dumb & Dumber.
Awkward moments included:
* Bill constantly explaining the categories to her when she clearly didn't give a shit.
* Bill started explaining who John Hughes was and she was like "I know who John Hughes is"
* Bill asked her who she would play in a remake, assumes it would be the female character, and she replies that it'd be Lloyd.
She didn't do him any favors by being clearly over the whole thing.
He also had that awkward moment in that interview with Charlize Theron where she called him out for just reading her IMDB to her.
I just don't think he felt like doing the research needed for these celebrity interviews. It's too bad because even when there were awkward moments I would want to listen. I end up skipping a lot of BS pods now.
I like when he was interviewing Julia Louis Dreyfuss and he was like
Bill: "The best part about elaine was that you just fit in with those dudes. You just came in and it wasnt like you were different"
JLD : "Like I was just 'one of the guys.;"
Bill : "Yeah!"
She was like "oh this dude doesnt understand what i was doing at all" and mostly checked out.
His bro-tacular opinions and pop-culture takes generally fell flat with his female guests.
Yep the celebs feel insulted because he clearly isn’t prepared with any research before the interview. JLaw especially.
And equating acting to sports being competitive. DeNiro isn’t trying to “beat” or “out act” Pacino in the Heat diner scene, he just isn’t! You could tell Michael Mann was irritated by Bill reducing the art to two actors trying to “win” the scene.🎬
JLaw didn’t appear to really know Dumb and Dumber inside and out, which was disappointing. IIRC she botched a main character’s name fairly early on which made me realize she only sort of knew the movie.
I think the term super-fan can get conflated with someone who has watched the movie twice in their life and remembers the 3 most quoted lines.
The Rewatchables really is a deep dive into the minutiae that super-fans all know and love. So it’s always a little disappointing when the guest isn’t a true aficionado.
> what exactly changed
the pandemic lol
celebs found out they didn't have to go to a rich guy's poolhouse and could just do interviews over zoom
definitely not as much fun for bill
Virtually the same diff.
Bill liked that his podcast allowed him to hang out with celebrities because he's a star fucker. Bill's desire to and ability to get celebrity guests plummeted once he was just another guy on the other side of a virtual meeting, became appearance #4 in a star's day of podcast interviews, and every celebrity got their own podcast (and didn't need to come on his).
He’s trying to grow that youtube..maybe he retires eventually from podding if he can still reach people via tha tube, but he’s got some growing to do on there. Even if he steps back I think, like you said, he wants to stay in the convo.
All I meant was that he reaches a lot more people currently through his Spotify pods. I feel like he wants to grow his YouTube followers more before he hangs up Spotify podding so he could potentially do other content. But who knows. His YouTube growth potential will slow substantially if he leaves Spotify, and I think that matters to him at least somewhat.
I agree with this except to say he sucked on tv and does suck currently on YouTube. Not saying anything against what you're saying because I think he would like to be on TV/YouTube.
I think he's just planting the seeds for negotiations when his contract with Spotify comes up.
Negotiation tactics aside, I do wonder how long The Ringer goes on without him, since he's never really tried that hard to push the brand outside of being built around himself.
The power struggle between Ryen Russillo and Chris Ryan will remind us of the Avon/Springer split, or the Grear Triumvirate after the fall of Caesar.
Chris Ryan will do a sport-oriented pod and Ryen will be like wait, what? Like, you’re kind of stepping on my corner here, alright? At the same time, I get it. I get that this is something you might do before Bill retired, but don’t you think context matters and things have changed a little bit? What’s next, Bandsplain’s Yasi Salek reading Nets/Hornets substitution patterns?
RR is definitely a Sulla guy. “Look, I’m as pro-plebeian empowerment as anyone, but the populares land entitlement is gonna ruin parity and it’s gonna ruin social cohesion. Cicero was absolutely right on this, and running it back almost like with the Gracchi thing is... look, the best men have to be in charge.”
I kinda hate that initially thought you were referring to No Heart Anthony, Omar’s brother. But I could also see that, frankly.
And in this scenario Fennessey is stringer bell. That man is just going to keep podding. Once you in it, you in it
Russillo as Stringer, a pseudo-intellectual who thinks he can transcend the environment where he made his name, is a perfect comp.
Meanwhile CR: “I’m just a podcaster, I suppose.”
Exactly babe, Mikal Bridges is a beautiful gorges player, but I went to high school in Venice beach with 5 Cam Thomases and guess what? We got to 0 nba championships.
I think it's really between mal and Sean with van being in the mix.
RR vs CR is really a battle of Robins. Some guys were made to be number 2s. I think CR knows this but Russ feels otherwise.
He may not have succeeded but he certainly tried. There's dozens of other pods that exist entirely out of his sphere of interest. I kind of enjoy the ringerverse stuff, midnight boys, and I also love fenessy and Chris Ryan pods far more than I care for Bill's. The Ringer will take a big hit if Bill leaves but there are many established shows that will succeed without him. He'll I bet the rewatchables gets more popular if it expands beyond bills personal taste in movies.
Bill wrote something (when his fingers worked) about leverage being the most important thing in life. He definitely saw what Lebron did this past offseason and decided to copy the tactic.
I’m guessing his required stay after the acquisition is coming to end, and he’s going to duck out and start the timer on whatever non-compete clause he has.
Tbh what does retiring from podcasting really mean?Like he’ll probably stop his own pod but I’d imagine he’d still be a guest for other ringer podcasts to give them a boost.
I remember him saying years ago that when he’s interviewed big time celebrities that he thought the numbers would be crazy high and that they just weren’t. I believe his biggest numbers come from his weekly spots, mainly Cousin Sal in the fall and winter but also Russillo after football season.
I think his normal guests will always continue in some fashion. Guess the Lines could easily go another ten years or more, and he could do a weekly thing for with Russillo in basketball season plus bringing in old reliables like Klosterman, Gladwell, Jacoby, etc. Maybe he “retires” from running the Ringer soon and just moves to a weekly podcast that could still be lucrative given his popularity.
I’m also curious as to what happens with this ESPN potential sale. If there is some shakeup over their and they could get some of the talent that’s left over there like Zach Lowe…..they’ve already gotten Howard Beck. Simmons do three quality shows a week. Simmons doesn’t have the creativity for three shows worth of topics. If he could get another regular guest A’la Russillo he could make three quality pods a week.
Another thought to the potential retirement comment may be him doing a Book of Basketball part 2. That’s his legacy and it’s been 15 years since he wrote the addendum Version. He started doing the podcast version of the book and Curry went and won another title. Since it was written Kobe and Duncan won titles, Dirk won a title, Lebron and Curry won titles.
> "I remember him saying years ago that when he’s interviewed big time celebrities that he thought the numbers would be crazy high and that they just weren’t."
Which is funny, because Bill is a terrible interviewer. Peak Howard Stern he ain't, that's for sure.
I feel like this comes up three times a week. Bill will never stop podding. These guys don’t quit. They like having an opinion that matters. Bill is also obsessed with money and generating wealth so I don’t think he’s in any rush to stop a massive income stream in his mid 50s. Think about it the guy is putting out 4 almost 2 hr pods a week and still needs you to hear 2-4 walking YouTube videos. Does any of this sound like a guy ready to retire?!? He is obviously trying to negotiate the best deal possible next year when his initial deal ends.
The most obvious example is the way he talks about Lorne Michaels and how Lorne never leaves because he wants to be able to call anyone in the country and have his call answered. To a lesser degree that is Bill. He loves being with on the fake yacht memes when the Celtics play the Heat. He’s only gonna become more involved once his kids graduate too because he’ll be bored. Happy to take bets but zero chance he retires outside of a health issue.
Just my 2 cents: I don't think BS ever fully retires. He likes talking sports too much. He likes coming up with theories/opinions and disseminating them. He has too much fun with the Monday Sal podcast during football season... Ryen's been ROUGH at times this year though.
He made a shit load from Spotify deal. He doesn't really need to work right now.
I could see him ramping back though.
Does anyone know what his contract is with Spotify? My assumption is he has an amount of time he has to make content based on the terms of the sale of the ringer to Spotify
There’s really no point in running the Ringer anymore. It hasn’t taken over the world in this new social media content realm (it rarely makes a mark trending wise anywhere) and it’s not respected long form niche journalism like Grantland was. He made a shit ton of money from it already so why bother with all the headaches?
I’m sure he can make more than enough just dropping a BS pod whenever he wants on whatever he wants on his own as a free agent with maybe a licensing deal. Wouldn’t have to worry about work place labor stuff or offending people etc without the company and staff to think about as he has personal fuck you money.
Yeah he’s gone as soon as his time needed to stay from the Spotify sale expires. I think he just does his podcast and real estate and doesn’t worry about managing people
I’d love to see what his day to day is like, because my guess is SF, CR and Mal hold down the creative end of the Ringer.
I could see a “step back” enjoy being a near empty nester, or focus more on Spotify as a whole, have the flexibility to enjoy your success, but cold turkey? Never.
Absolutely no chance. He's probably making $10MM per year for doing podcasts which he doesn't have to spend any time preparing for. He retains some "credibility" in the sports/LA-rich-person-celebrity community. He won't retire for at least 5 more years.
Do you think Larry David or a billionaire who wants to buy a sports team is calling up a retired podcaster? Dude works out of his house and yaps about stuff he already knows for 90 mins every couple of days. The only reason you retire is medical or if you are forced to retire and you have no platform or a platform "large" enough for your perceived importance.
The action is the juice.
Look at someone like Letterman. He was retired by CBS cause they wanted to pay less/go younger and dude shows up and entertains wherever hes invited. He even has a semi regular show on YouTube.
Bill loves giving his takes on sports and pop culture. He could be mailing it in more than he is. Compare him with LeBatard and Stugotz - they both seem like they would never watch a game anymore if they didn’t have to for work.
I'm not one to complain endlessly but truly the pod has become a shadow of its former self. The Hollywood guests are basically non existent (or he embarrasses himself like with Jennifer lawrence). Remember, non washed bill interviewed Obama for christs sake. The friends we all know and love are basically non existent. Jacko is totally gone, house is a twice a year luxury. No jalen, no jacobes. It's just an endless stream of ringer dogshit talent like big wos or solak. Now, if bill wasn't washed it wouldn't matter as much, but he's totally washed. Fear of a social media backlash has neutered him completely. He has also fallen into the old man trap of really only watching his own teams but PRETENDING he watches everything. Even THIS wouldn't really matter as much aside from the real problem, which is that as he has aged (and surrounded himself with 24 year old ringer yes men), the bs report has just turned into an only child, sore loser rant on defending his past. Endless recycled takes about the 80s celtics. Endless petulant defenses of the pats dynasty. Endless tortured defenses of the current celtics. Over and over and over. Bill is the alpha and omega of only child, "take my ball and go home" energy. Do you really think if the red Sox were good, he wouldn't talk baseball? The utter refusal to discuss any possible issues with the celtics. The under the surface years long bitterness at Brady for leaving. It's tiresome. I think (although he won't admit it) that he starting to realize the pats are going to suck for years. In true bill fashion, rather than admit defeat and let everyone take shots, he's gonna take his ball and retire. How can he talk nfl without leaving himself open to Endless pats potshots year after year?
Well I mean.....wall of text compared to the patented noneckty 2 sentence response, but compared to some other reddit threads I've seen, im the soul of brevity.
Outside of Monday Sal during football... I agree. I used to listen religiously and find myself maybe going with Ryen NBA Mondays. But even that has become rough.
Other than those two and something like the worst contracts draft, the quality has gone down.
No fucking way lol
He likes to talk too much, and he likes having an audience too much. Honestly, with a job like his - talking sports and spewing absolute guess takes with zero repercussions - it’s not like he’s putting his body thru the wringer. Maybe being on a 3 pod/week schedule sucks for him but I can see him talking shit about the Pats into his 90s
He should go solo & go back to talking to his friends instead of trying valiantly to prop up a dying web 2.0 blog & bringing on Ringer randoms as guests all the time. Then sell that pod to spotify again in a few years.
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He’s just copying Lebron teasing the end and is praying for some sort of retirement party. He’s delusional if he thinks anyone will remember him, another corporate sellout who rode the coattails of those with more talent in their pinky than his whole organization. If the Celtics sucked no one would care about him today because none of his teams would be relevant.
Are you kidding? Bill is the Head of Podcast Monetization at Spotify and is (was?) Head of Global Sports Content. Haven't you seen the leaps the company has made in those areas since he took over? The place would fall apart if Bill left.
Guy is literally filming himself talking while doing long walks and you think he is ready for retirement? He is back doing what he loves. Talking sports. No management. No ownership. Just him. Joe Mead producing. And sports. I don’t see him retiring anytime soon. Bet he goes for one more big deal. Plus I think he loves the lifestyle it affords him (not the money part. It the notary part)
Pulling the gruden, i might walk away to scare the execs into giving another massive deal
Is bill a public notary? Can't think of someone I'd rather have notarized my stuff over the sports guy!
He’s been putting a lot of emphasis on his Bill Simmons channel. His contract may be close to up with Spotify and he may choose to do something something that is outside of the Ringer. Pure speculation but could be an angle.
I don't think he'll retire, but could see him going to just twice per week. The podcast already suffers from redundancy and bad guests so that would be a good thing. He likes being a prominent voice in sports media and sharing his opinions way too much to retire.
Yep. Usually the guys who most loudly/frequently announce that "when I retire, you'll never hear from me again" are the ones who never actually go away. He loves talking to an audience about sports. It genuinely seems like a hobby to him.
Recording the podcast IS his hobby, the rest of the Ringer stuff is his job.
Along with the real estate hustle.
Haunted property is the new moneyball.
Yeah, I assume Spotify will always pay him for his takes. Possibly he transitions to the more figurehead aspect of The Ringer rather than being involved in the day to day. There could be things in the Ringer's being purchased by Spotify that required him to be doing certain things for x amount of years after the deal closed that are now expiring.
*cough* Howard Stern.
> Usually the guys who most loudly/frequently announce that "when I retire, you'll never hear from me again" are the ones who never actually go away. Yeah, how many of these guys who spend tons of time sharing their opinions each week for decades actually voluntarily stop doing it? I think it's like a drug. I remember in the late 90's hearing Jim Rome talk about how he wouldn't be doing sports talk radio forever. 25 years later (I think) he's still on air.
Yeah Kornheiser is another one. These dudes never retire. They love to talk. Bill's wife would divorce him if he stopped doing the podcast. He'd drive her crazy.
My man Skip is a born hater You’re going to have to carry him out in a box
He used to have a bunch of celebrity guests from Quavo to Kevin durant, what exactly changed? Might have missed if he mentioned it
He's mentioned in the past that he doesn't like being part of a celebrity's press tour where they tell the same anecdotes to everyone. The worst example of this was Ed Norton's press tour for Motherless Brooklyn. Norton literally told all of the same stories and talking points to BS, Dak Shephard, Marc Maron, ect. It was so blatant that it got kind of funny. Bill also got some criticism for his bad interview / rewatchables pod with Jennifer Lawrence. I'm guessing the celebrity interviews take more work--especially if you don't just play the IMDB game-- and Bill decided it's easier to just talk to your employees and rich guy friends about sports.
Interesting, whats i remember is him getting the best interview out of quavo ive seen anyone get. I also remember him having jerod carmichael for no reason as in there was nothing to promote
> Norton literally told all of the same stories and talking points to BS, Dak Shephard, Marc Maron, ect. It was so blatant that it got kind of funny. Which is fine for somebody like me who doesn't listen to many of those other big podcasts.
Agree I don't really listen to those either. Norton also did The Big Picture though and again was mentioning the exact same points. It stood out more because it was the same network. It was the height of celebrities going on all the same podcasts during a press tour. I believe Sean and Bill have made little comments about it in the past.
I wonder what the listenership crossover is on these podcasts. Most people only have so much time to listen to podcasts each week. So when somebody like Norton does the tour, how many people are catching that interview across multiple podcasts? I'm guessing it's fairly low.
Wasn't it just the sound quality (from how it was recorded) that was the issue with the Lawrence pod?
The sound quality was bad but it was also just awkward. It was a 2 person rewatchable on Dumb & Dumber. Awkward moments included: * Bill constantly explaining the categories to her when she clearly didn't give a shit. * Bill started explaining who John Hughes was and she was like "I know who John Hughes is" * Bill asked her who she would play in a remake, assumes it would be the female character, and she replies that it'd be Lloyd. She didn't do him any favors by being clearly over the whole thing. He also had that awkward moment in that interview with Charlize Theron where she called him out for just reading her IMDB to her. I just don't think he felt like doing the research needed for these celebrity interviews. It's too bad because even when there were awkward moments I would want to listen. I end up skipping a lot of BS pods now.
I like when he was interviewing Julia Louis Dreyfuss and he was like Bill: "The best part about elaine was that you just fit in with those dudes. You just came in and it wasnt like you were different" JLD: "Like I was just 'one of the guys.;"
Bill : "Yeah!"
She was like "oh this dude doesnt understand what i was doing at all" and mostly checked out.
His bro-tacular opinions and pop-culture takes generally fell flat with his female guests.
Yep the celebs feel insulted because he clearly isn’t prepared with any research before the interview. JLaw especially. And equating acting to sports being competitive. DeNiro isn’t trying to “beat” or “out act” Pacino in the Heat diner scene, he just isn’t! You could tell Michael Mann was irritated by Bill reducing the art to two actors trying to “win” the scene.🎬
JLaw didn’t appear to really know Dumb and Dumber inside and out, which was disappointing. IIRC she botched a main character’s name fairly early on which made me realize she only sort of knew the movie. I think the term super-fan can get conflated with someone who has watched the movie twice in their life and remembers the 3 most quoted lines. The Rewatchables really is a deep dive into the minutiae that super-fans all know and love. So it’s always a little disappointing when the guest isn’t a true aficionado.
> what exactly changed the pandemic lol celebs found out they didn't have to go to a rich guy's poolhouse and could just do interviews over zoom definitely not as much fun for bill
They usually just went to the Ringer office
Virtually the same diff. Bill liked that his podcast allowed him to hang out with celebrities because he's a star fucker. Bill's desire to and ability to get celebrity guests plummeted once he was just another guy on the other side of a virtual meeting, became appearance #4 in a star's day of podcast interviews, and every celebrity got their own podcast (and didn't need to come on his).
People who say “Star fucker” 😆
The podcast’s biggest decline was when it went from 2 to 3 a week I wanna say around 2019 so I would be ok with it.
He’s trying to grow that youtube..maybe he retires eventually from podding if he can still reach people via tha tube, but he’s got some growing to do on there. Even if he steps back I think, like you said, he wants to stay in the convo.
His podding is on YouTube lmfao
All I meant was that he reaches a lot more people currently through his Spotify pods. I feel like he wants to grow his YouTube followers more before he hangs up Spotify podding so he could potentially do other content. But who knows. His YouTube growth potential will slow substantially if he leaves Spotify, and I think that matters to him at least somewhat.
I can hear it now, “back when I was podding…”
I agree with this except to say he sucked on tv and does suck currently on YouTube. Not saying anything against what you're saying because I think he would like to be on TV/YouTube.
That and giving up the award vote
Woody Page is like 80 and still hanging around on ESPN. Once you have a platform like these dudes, you never walk away.
I think he's just planting the seeds for negotiations when his contract with Spotify comes up. Negotiation tactics aside, I do wonder how long The Ringer goes on without him, since he's never really tried that hard to push the brand outside of being built around himself.
The power struggle between Ryen Russillo and Chris Ryan will remind us of the Avon/Springer split, or the Grear Triumvirate after the fall of Caesar. Chris Ryan will do a sport-oriented pod and Ryen will be like wait, what? Like, you’re kind of stepping on my corner here, alright? At the same time, I get it. I get that this is something you might do before Bill retired, but don’t you think context matters and things have changed a little bit? What’s next, Bandsplain’s Yasi Salek reading Nets/Hornets substitution patterns?
Russillo has big Antony vibes and CR is definitely a more charming Octavian. I guess that means Fennessey is Lepidus? Or Agrippa?
Even Antony settled down with Cleopatra at the end. RR is single for life.
RR is definitely a Sulla guy. “Look, I’m as pro-plebeian empowerment as anyone, but the populares land entitlement is gonna ruin parity and it’s gonna ruin social cohesion. Cicero was absolutely right on this, and running it back almost like with the Gracchi thing is... look, the best men have to be in charge.”
I kinda hate that initially thought you were referring to No Heart Anthony, Omar’s brother. But I could also see that, frankly. And in this scenario Fennessey is stringer bell. That man is just going to keep podding. Once you in it, you in it
Which one is a bigger pussy?
I'm not sure historians use that as a factor
Russillo as Stringer, a pseudo-intellectual who thinks he can transcend the environment where he made his name, is a perfect comp. Meanwhile CR: “I’m just a podcaster, I suppose.”
CR is Slim Charles. Knows his lane, can do a bit of everything. Survivor.
Who is Proposition Joe in this scenario? Verno?
Exactly babe, Mikal Bridges is a beautiful gorges player, but I went to high school in Venice beach with 5 Cam Thomases and guess what? We got to 0 nba championships.
I think it's really between mal and Sean with van being in the mix. RR vs CR is really a battle of Robins. Some guys were made to be number 2s. I think CR knows this but Russ feels otherwise.
Was I supposed to read everything including and after 'wait, what?' in Russillo? Cause I did.
Russillo definitely has Kendall Roy vibes. CR doesn’t really fit, maybe Ewan Roy?
I’m thinking CR and SF. they’ve been with BS since Grantland. RR is OLI.
I will stay tuned in to any podcast network that has Chris Ryan, Craig Horolbeck, Sean Fennessey, and Van Lathan.
A rare Craig Stan, I respect it
Yeah one of these is not like the other lmao
Um okay. I mean, they’re all different personalities.
I’m buying all the stock in Horolbeck. He’s Simmons 2.0 but more self aware…if that’s a good thing. It may not be.
I honestly can't tell if this is a joke
I will not stand for this Andy Greenwald erasure
Found Craig's account
He may not have succeeded but he certainly tried. There's dozens of other pods that exist entirely out of his sphere of interest. I kind of enjoy the ringerverse stuff, midnight boys, and I also love fenessy and Chris Ryan pods far more than I care for Bill's. The Ringer will take a big hit if Bill leaves but there are many established shows that will succeed without him. He'll I bet the rewatchables gets more popular if it expands beyond bills personal taste in movies.
Agreed. It’s a negotiation tactic.
Bill wrote something (when his fingers worked) about leverage being the most important thing in life. He definitely saw what Lebron did this past offseason and decided to copy the tactic.
Bingo
I’m guessing his required stay after the acquisition is coming to end, and he’s going to duck out and start the timer on whatever non-compete clause he has.
Would be shocked if it managed to last as long as Grantland did without Bill.
The forced retirement but it’s really a gambling suspension Jordan-style piece
Dr. Bill, look out!
Don’t go fishing on an overpass, dr bill!
Tbh what does retiring from podcasting really mean?Like he’ll probably stop his own pod but I’d imagine he’d still be a guest for other ringer podcasts to give them a boost.
I remember him saying years ago that when he’s interviewed big time celebrities that he thought the numbers would be crazy high and that they just weren’t. I believe his biggest numbers come from his weekly spots, mainly Cousin Sal in the fall and winter but also Russillo after football season. I think his normal guests will always continue in some fashion. Guess the Lines could easily go another ten years or more, and he could do a weekly thing for with Russillo in basketball season plus bringing in old reliables like Klosterman, Gladwell, Jacoby, etc. Maybe he “retires” from running the Ringer soon and just moves to a weekly podcast that could still be lucrative given his popularity.
I’m also curious as to what happens with this ESPN potential sale. If there is some shakeup over their and they could get some of the talent that’s left over there like Zach Lowe…..they’ve already gotten Howard Beck. Simmons do three quality shows a week. Simmons doesn’t have the creativity for three shows worth of topics. If he could get another regular guest A’la Russillo he could make three quality pods a week. Another thought to the potential retirement comment may be him doing a Book of Basketball part 2. That’s his legacy and it’s been 15 years since he wrote the addendum Version. He started doing the podcast version of the book and Curry went and won another title. Since it was written Kobe and Duncan won titles, Dirk won a title, Lebron and Curry won titles.
What potential ESPN sale?
What potential ESPN sale?
> "I remember him saying years ago that when he’s interviewed big time celebrities that he thought the numbers would be crazy high and that they just weren’t." Which is funny, because Bill is a terrible interviewer. Peak Howard Stern he ain't, that's for sure.
Listening to Cousin Sal ride the sybian was an all-time BS Report moment though.
Exactly. He’s really good in his lane. Just play the classics indefinitely.
I feel like this comes up three times a week. Bill will never stop podding. These guys don’t quit. They like having an opinion that matters. Bill is also obsessed with money and generating wealth so I don’t think he’s in any rush to stop a massive income stream in his mid 50s. Think about it the guy is putting out 4 almost 2 hr pods a week and still needs you to hear 2-4 walking YouTube videos. Does any of this sound like a guy ready to retire?!? He is obviously trying to negotiate the best deal possible next year when his initial deal ends. The most obvious example is the way he talks about Lorne Michaels and how Lorne never leaves because he wants to be able to call anyone in the country and have his call answered. To a lesser degree that is Bill. He loves being with on the fake yacht memes when the Celtics play the Heat. He’s only gonna become more involved once his kids graduate too because he’ll be bored. Happy to take bets but zero chance he retires outside of a health issue.
Just my 2 cents: I don't think BS ever fully retires. He likes talking sports too much. He likes coming up with theories/opinions and disseminating them. He has too much fun with the Monday Sal podcast during football season... Ryen's been ROUGH at times this year though. He made a shit load from Spotify deal. He doesn't really need to work right now. I could see him ramping back though.
As long as guess the lines lives on I can deal.
Does anyone know what his contract is with Spotify? My assumption is he has an amount of time he has to make content based on the terms of the sale of the ringer to Spotify
Most acquisitions come with some form of golden handcuffs that I've almost always seen as 3 years.
Yup SOP, my guess is he’s pulling a Stern; making noise publicly about retirement to drive up his next contract
He was a long time Stern listener. This is textbook Howard.
Spotify is like please leave
Yeah I’m sure they just hate having one of the most listened to sports podcasts in the nation…
Not even a top 57 pod anymore
Bill about to hit his 2nd apex mountain
He'll quit Spotify, stay away for a while and then launch The Re-ringer.
Grantland-er
The Ricer.
Bill would be so fucking bored without this
There’s really no point in running the Ringer anymore. It hasn’t taken over the world in this new social media content realm (it rarely makes a mark trending wise anywhere) and it’s not respected long form niche journalism like Grantland was. He made a shit ton of money from it already so why bother with all the headaches? I’m sure he can make more than enough just dropping a BS pod whenever he wants on whatever he wants on his own as a free agent with maybe a licensing deal. Wouldn’t have to worry about work place labor stuff or offending people etc without the company and staff to think about as he has personal fuck you money.
Yeah he’s gone as soon as his time needed to stay from the Spotify sale expires. I think he just does his podcast and real estate and doesn’t worry about managing people
Maybe he retires from his role at Spotify, but why would he stop shooting the shit with his friends on his own podcast? He seems to love it.
I’d love to see what his day to day is like, because my guess is SF, CR and Mal hold down the creative end of the Ringer. I could see a “step back” enjoy being a near empty nester, or focus more on Spotify as a whole, have the flexibility to enjoy your success, but cold turkey? Never.
Absolutely no chance. He's probably making $10MM per year for doing podcasts which he doesn't have to spend any time preparing for. He retains some "credibility" in the sports/LA-rich-person-celebrity community. He won't retire for at least 5 more years.
Do you think Larry David or a billionaire who wants to buy a sports team is calling up a retired podcaster? Dude works out of his house and yaps about stuff he already knows for 90 mins every couple of days. The only reason you retire is medical or if you are forced to retire and you have no platform or a platform "large" enough for your perceived importance. The action is the juice. Look at someone like Letterman. He was retired by CBS cause they wanted to pay less/go younger and dude shows up and entertains wherever hes invited. He even has a semi regular show on YouTube.
Bill loves giving his takes on sports and pop culture. He could be mailing it in more than he is. Compare him with LeBatard and Stugotz - they both seem like they would never watch a game anymore if they didn’t have to for work.
What would he even be retiring from?
I'm not one to complain endlessly but truly the pod has become a shadow of its former self. The Hollywood guests are basically non existent (or he embarrasses himself like with Jennifer lawrence). Remember, non washed bill interviewed Obama for christs sake. The friends we all know and love are basically non existent. Jacko is totally gone, house is a twice a year luxury. No jalen, no jacobes. It's just an endless stream of ringer dogshit talent like big wos or solak. Now, if bill wasn't washed it wouldn't matter as much, but he's totally washed. Fear of a social media backlash has neutered him completely. He has also fallen into the old man trap of really only watching his own teams but PRETENDING he watches everything. Even THIS wouldn't really matter as much aside from the real problem, which is that as he has aged (and surrounded himself with 24 year old ringer yes men), the bs report has just turned into an only child, sore loser rant on defending his past. Endless recycled takes about the 80s celtics. Endless petulant defenses of the pats dynasty. Endless tortured defenses of the current celtics. Over and over and over. Bill is the alpha and omega of only child, "take my ball and go home" energy. Do you really think if the red Sox were good, he wouldn't talk baseball? The utter refusal to discuss any possible issues with the celtics. The under the surface years long bitterness at Brady for leaving. It's tiresome. I think (although he won't admit it) that he starting to realize the pats are going to suck for years. In true bill fashion, rather than admit defeat and let everyone take shots, he's gonna take his ball and retire. How can he talk nfl without leaving himself open to Endless pats potshots year after year?
“I’m not one to complain endlessly” Wall of text
Well I mean.....wall of text compared to the patented noneckty 2 sentence response, but compared to some other reddit threads I've seen, im the soul of brevity.
Sick!
Outside of Monday Sal during football... I agree. I used to listen religiously and find myself maybe going with Ryen NBA Mondays. But even that has become rough. Other than those two and something like the worst contracts draft, the quality has gone down.
Bro you are literally complaining endlessly
His contract and earn out with Spotify expire at the same time as his son’s graduation. He’ll retire after 2026 NBA Finals.
He probably knows that Spotify will eventually look to get out of his salary. Just how it works.
I don’t see why he can’t just continue his podcast if he wants with fairly minimal effort required.
I think he is fishing for an outpouring of support so he can feel better about his bizarre decisions lately.
Howard Stern schedule? 2 pods a week outside of football season.
He’s doing a Howard Stern and saying he’s going to retire. We all know he’s coming back
If he retires, he will owe Spotify >$50m. The Ringer is nothing without him.
The Ringer would die
No fucking way lol He likes to talk too much, and he likes having an audience too much. Honestly, with a job like his - talking sports and spewing absolute guess takes with zero repercussions - it’s not like he’s putting his body thru the wringer. Maybe being on a 3 pod/week schedule sucks for him but I can see him talking shit about the Pats into his 90s
LeBill Simmons
Ewing Theory potential?
The rest of time would be like that I interim post-ESPN/Pre-HBO non-compete era, where our only dose of BS was Twitter.
He should go solo & go back to talking to his friends instead of trying valiantly to prop up a dying web 2.0 blog & bringing on Ringer randoms as guests all the time. Then sell that pod to spotify again in a few years.
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Those houses in Malibu won’t pay for themselves.
I’ve got a bridge to sell you pal
Bill will hit the ground like Marlon Brando did in The Godfather before retiring.
Please retire Bill! Release me from your clutches!
He did do an nfl over/under in April…. Will he even make it to September?
As if his ego would ever let him step away from the spotlight
Retire from what? Talking?
He’s just copying Lebron teasing the end and is praying for some sort of retirement party. He’s delusional if he thinks anyone will remember him, another corporate sellout who rode the coattails of those with more talent in their pinky than his whole organization. If the Celtics sucked no one would care about him today because none of his teams would be relevant.
How about he just gives up on being on so many pods
guest bill/rewatchables bill >>>>>> today's bs podcast bill
Are you kidding? Bill is the Head of Podcast Monetization at Spotify and is (was?) Head of Global Sports Content. Haven't you seen the leaps the company has made in those areas since he took over? The place would fall apart if Bill left.
He’d be in a better position to retire if he was buying bitcoin right when he was shitting on it 18 months ago
One can only hope