Report: Bill Simmons Suspended From Twitter by ESPN After Criticizing Richard Sherman-Skip Bayless Dustup

by Zach Stoloff on Thu, Mar 14, 2013 at 6:01PM

Long known as the “Sports Guy” on social media, Bill Simmons became one of the most-followed pundits on Twitter, gaining more than two million followers. However, it turns out his employer may not be so fond of the messages the Grantland founder is sending out to his Internet minions.

About a week ago, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman tore into host Skip Bayless on ESPN’s debate show First Take. Both Bayless and the show have been under much criticism for its treatment of everything from Tim Tebow to LeBron James to socio-political issues during its run, and Sherman took his opportunity to make some personal attacks on Bayless live on-air.

In the wake of the interview, Simmons took to Twitter to let his feelings be known, tweeting, “Nobody won. Everyone lost. Including ESPN.” Likewise, it appears that Simmons has broached upon the company’s social media guidelines (a copy of which can be found here in .pdf format) in doing so.

According to unnamed sources acquired by Deadspin, Simmons has been suspended from Twitter “for a few days” due to two Sherman-Bayless tweets. The evidence would clearly support this, as Simmons has tweeted nearly daily going back months, did not tweet at all on Tuesday or Wednesday. As of Thursday, the only new tweets to appear on Simmons’ account were retweets of Bill Barnwell and Grantland. According to Deadspin, Simmons is due to return to Twitter in full on Friday.

Check out the tweets that got Simmons in trouble below.

I am not defending this segment - youtu.be/j6x-O3kb1sI - I thought it was awful and embarrassing to everyone involved. Seriously.
—
Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) March 08, 2013

But what bothers me about the reaction to that segment is people saying Richard Sherman "won." Nobody won. Everyone lost. Including ESPN.
—
Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) March 08, 2013