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The Ringer |OT| Formerly Known as Binge Mode
- Thread starter ryseing
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Yeah it's gonna be unbearable. Aren't the Celtics heating up a bit too? Might skip his pods for a few weeks tbh (not even joking).
Aruarian Reflection
Chauffeur de la gdlk
I unsubscribed from the podcast months ago because it was just an endless loop of Sal, Lombardi and House. I checked the podcast feed today and the Super Bowl post-game podcast features Sal, Lombardi and Simmon's dad. Yeah.... no thanks
I've been reading Simmons since his early Page 2 days, but there is a big difference between just his homerism and his newfound wall-to-wall coverage of Boston sports to the exclusion of almost everything else. His guest well has dried up too so now it's just his buddies and employees basically listening to him and agreeing with him every step of the way on everything. The guests that would challenge him or at least force him to change topics just aren't coming on anymore. Now in his recent interview he said that was because they were being booked on the show, but now that the show's dead we haven't really seen an uptick in guest or topic variety so I guess we'll see. Wonder if he's spending his time figuring out an exit from The Ringer because he honestly doesn't really seem that dedicated to it, and the laziness of only discussing his favorite teams is just one of the many examples of that (others include his apparent total lack of listening to or reading anything on the site that isn't Boston related (I'm certain of the former, and pretty sure on the latter)). He's just lazy and I guess to his credit he's even copped to it several times. I would be totally cool with Lazy Simmons just doing goofy stuff like when he used to visit memorabilia conventions, etc., but I'm not sure how much longer I can hang with the all-Boston focus.
There is a difference between supporting a team (like House, or Vernon, or anybody is doing on other Ringer podcasts) and drunk-uncle homerism. I love Bill Simmons but close to unbearable.
I don't even care about Bill's super-homerism, but I don't bother listening to any podcast where he invites some Boston-area person on just so they can circlejerk about Boston the whole time. There's a difference between being a ridiculous homer (which can actually be entertaining as long as you don't take him seriously) and being up your own ass.
Hasphat'sAnts
Member
None of his other guests are established enough to challenge him on his dumb ideas.
I miss his podcasts with Zach Lowe. He forced Simmons to be more thoughtful, and the show was so much better for it.
I miss his podcasts with Zach Lowe. He forced Simmons to be more thoughtful, and the show was so much better for it.
Steve Kerr on the podcast. Finally, enough of the half-assed gambling stuff and back to Bill's strengths.
The problem with Bill's Boston homerdom is that it's pretty lazy, as far as analyzing one's own teams go. He can get carried away with the Celtics, but at least you can tell he's a huge basketball nerd and watches the NBA religiously. There's no Boston-specific insight to be found in his ravings about the Pats. Is Belichick the greatest or the greatestest? zzzzz
Can you blame them? Before, ESPN was the big boss lurking in the background. He got to play good cop. Now, he's the boss with final veto.
The problem with Bill's Boston homerdom is that it's pretty lazy, as far as analyzing one's own teams go. He can get carried away with the Celtics, but at least you can tell he's a huge basketball nerd and watches the NBA religiously. There's no Boston-specific insight to be found in his ravings about the Pats. Is Belichick the greatest or the greatestest? zzzzz
Can you blame them? Before, ESPN was the big boss lurking in the background. He got to play good cop. Now, he's the boss with final veto.
https://theringer.com/image-comics-25-year-anniversary-the-walking-dead-e4774b7bffcd#.sjvfd8slp
Really good, Grantland style piece.
Really good, Grantland style piece.
The Albatross
Member
Yeah as a Boston sports fan I can't see how anybody could listen to Simmons' podcast who isn't a fan of Boston sports.
ctrl-f: 'brady' no results
WOW!
And yeah the KD pod was quite entertaining. Glad Bill is trying to rejoin the real world here after the eight Boston mailbags and pods that I assume no one outside of Boston paid any attention to.
So in the interest of fairness, I have to say that Simmons's pod game the past couple weeks has been on point. Kerr and Durant pods were mostly great, as were the ones this week. OK the Sean Grande one was back to Celticsland mostly, but even I didn't mind it that much. I really liked the Durant one until his agent came in, then I had to switch it off from the cringe.
Ninja Scooter
Member
We finally got an NBA pod and it was almost entirely Celtics circle jerking with Sean "Marcus Smart is nice to my kid so let me totally overrate him" Grande. Man I miss Simmons and Lowe. Hell at this point I'd take Simmons and Stein or Bucher.
Hahahah yep. And basically saying that Isaiah Jr. is better than Iverson. For some reason I was OK with it; it was borderline comical. And I don't get as annoyed by the Celtics as I do the Pats talk, which was played out ten years ago.
Listening to the Belt discussion on the Watch- to me, the Belt has always been a very interesting idea. To hold the Belt, a show needs to combine quality with a sense of "OMGness" which will essentially force people to talk about it. It's unfortunate that Legion is disqualified, as it probably fits those qualifications better than any other show on television currently airing.
Since that is the case, I'm going to go to bat for a show I know Andy and Chris haven't watched, but they have discussed- Riverdale. The main argument against it holding the Belt is that everything isn't quite there yet. The "Archie's fucking his teacher" plot was horrendously executed, and KJ Apa is such a bore. IMO though the rest of the show easily makes up for it, with Watch favorite Skeet Ulrich (!) just being introduced as the leader of a biker gang and the Betty/Veronica team-up slaying everything. I really think it would be right up their alley and would be a worthy Belt holder.
Since that is the case, I'm going to go to bat for a show I know Andy and Chris haven't watched, but they have discussed- Riverdale. The main argument against it holding the Belt is that everything isn't quite there yet. The "Archie's fucking his teacher" plot was horrendously executed, and KJ Apa is such a bore. IMO though the rest of the show easily makes up for it, with Watch favorite Skeet Ulrich (!) just being introduced as the leader of a biker gang and the Betty/Veronica team-up slaying everything. I really think it would be right up their alley and would be a worthy Belt holder.
Lombardi, I assume? His column was abysmal today. Just stop with the pop culture shtick. Even Simmons can barely pull it off these days.
Like, actually stick to sports.
Stein was on Lowe's podcast and mentioned Simmons and it gave me major nostalgia pangs.
I wish I could enjoy Vernon more than I do, but he too often falls into the sports radio DJ schtick and comes off as completely unnatural. I think Kevin O'Connor is a great basketball writer, and I wish Simmons would have him on his podcast more often to talk hoops.
As far as the Lombardi hire, I really don't understand it. Lombardi is not a talented writer, and he doesn't mesh with the other football guys they have like Mays and Clark. I think The Ringer has some really great writers, unfortunately they tend to get lost in the bloat that the site has added over the months. I would love for them to scale back and focus on the young talent that they have.
Lombardi is kind of like Poochie. Just have him as a guest once a month in the NFL season, but you definitely don't want major doses (and I say this as someone who doesn't mind him).
That said, pods the past couple week have been mostly fantastic. Really rounding back into form.
That said, pods the past couple week have been mostly fantastic. Really rounding back into form.
I agree 100% I think Simmons realized that having a great podcast these days can be more prestigious than trying to make TV work when he's obviously not an on-air talent. I think we'll see Simmons really focus more on the Pod, website and producing docs.
Steelyuhas
Member
Yeah, from that interview from a couple weeks ago it sounds like most of the revenue for The Ringer is from the podcasts.
RecRoulette
Member
Simmons doesn't have a TV show to worry about anymore.
HIGH DEF JEFF
Banned
Yeah..just mentioned in the Oscars thread too.
Great behind the scenes stories. Poor Sal!
I really wish the Best Actor card had been swapped with Best Picture now. Would have been the perfect capper on the Matt Damon hazing.
Also, Sal losses bets in the most agonizing ways.
Hopefully he just sticks to producing 30 for 30s. Don't know if HBO would be willing to continue throwing money at him.
That was a terrible moment lol. But I was really happy with him on the NFL pod. Actually found him to be an improvement on Kevin and Danny. Cut out all the dumb bullshit.
If Lombardi weren't responsible for football decisions that made Matt Millen look good, I'd be more interested in him. I saw the "how to fix your football team" video channel he made, and I'm pretty sure that all a GM has to do is the opposite of whatever Lombardi says and they would be golden.
gotta admire that even though simmons has access to an impressive lineup of guests and experts, his politics discussion is jacko telling us about how secretly meeting with russians and lying about it is the same as bernie sanders visiting russia on an official trip
fucking clowns. good thing simmons never calls out anyone on their bullshit either. he should have adam carolla on to talk about pizzagate or whatever
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-02-11/how-bernie-sanders-spent-his-soviet-honeymoon
fucking clowns. good thing simmons never calls out anyone on their bullshit either. he should have adam carolla on to talk about pizzagate or whatever
peppermints
Member
Thought it'd never happen.. Zach Lowe and BS back together on the latest podcast. Yes.
infiniteloop
Member
Zach Lowe on Bill's pod today.
THIS IS HUGE!!!
Ninja Scooter
Member
It's like Sonic showing up in a Mario game!
slightconfuse
Banned
Missed Zach balancing out bill.
They work really well together
They work really well together
TangoAlphaLima
Member
Holy cow. Do they explain why this is possible? ESPN doesn't care anymore?
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