ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons Over Roger Goodell Comments

Bill Simmons has been suspended from ESPN for three weeks after using his podcast to put NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on blast.

Complete with a multitude of profanities, Simmons called Goodell "a liar" and criticized the way the commissioner handled the ongoing Ray Rice domestic abuse case.

"Goodell, if he didn't know what was on that tape, he's a liar," Simmons said on the show, as recounted by USA Today's For the Win. "I'm just saying it. He is lying. If you put him up on a lie detector test, that guy would fail. For all these people to pretend they didn't know is such [expletive] [expletive]. It really is, it's such [expletive] [expletive]. For him to go into that press conference and pretend otherwise — I was so insulted."

Simmons got so heated, he even dared ESPN to penalize him for his biting remarks.

"I really hope somebody calls me or emails me and says I'm in trouble for anything I say about Roger Goodell, because if one person says that to me, I'm going public," he said. "You leave me alone. The commissioner's a liar and I get to talk about that on my podcast. Thank you."

ESPN was having none of that and released a statement on Wednesday announcing the suspension.

"Every employee must be accountable to ESPN and those engaged in our editorial operations must also operate within ESPN's journalistic standards," the network said in its statement. "We have worked hard to ensure that our recent NFL coverage has met that criteria. Bill Simmons did not meet those obligations in a recent podcast, and as a result we have suspended him for three weeks."

This is not the first time Simmons has gotten himself in trouble with the network. In 2013, he was suspended from his Twitter account for making derogatory remarks about a First Take segment featuring Skip Bayless and Richard Sherman.