It's been pretty well documented that ESPN made near zero effort to promote Grantland though (e.g., not even being listed on the mobile site), and yet they still developed an incredibly strong brand for quality journalism. And to be clear when I said "decision," I meant the decision to just say "screw it" and take off the filter by the end and take whatever may come. The situation was super dicey for some time, largely because Simmons knew the site was getting no support from Bristol.
Whatever "the ESPN of today" is, it doesn't seem to be working out so great for them. I'm kind of glad I get to pay even less attention to them now. I'll watch PTI in the background on DVR while reading email, but that's about it. SportsCenter is pretty unbearable and has been so for a while.
I agree that Simmons is not a great TV personality, though he does seem to be quite adept behind the scenes, as evidenced by his role in 30 for 30. Hopefully the HBO gig is more that angle.