ESPN Releases Bill Simmons: Sports Guy, Grantland Founder Fired by President John Skipper

It happened suddenly. The always fruitful, yet sometimes tumultuous relationship between Bill Simmons and ESPN has come to an end after company president John Skipper announced that the Sports Guy's contract will not be renewed. As a matter of fact, Simmons was released from ESPN more than four months before his contract was set to expire. Since the break, Simmons has been surprisingly silent. Twitter has always been a place for Simmons to speak but for now, he has chosen not to say anything.

Skipper says the reason for the release was due to the two parties not being able to come to terms during contract negotiations:

"I've decided that I'm not going to renew his contract. We've been talking to Bill, and it was clear that we weren't going to get to the terms, so we were better off focusing on transition," Skipper said on Simmons' release.

 Not even LeBron can ruin a Boston reunion with the J-Bug.

A photo posted by Bill Simmons (@sptguy33) on Apr 23, 2015 at 8:25pm PDT

John A. Walsh, ESPN's longtime executive editor who recently retired, said he was surprised to hear about the Simmons the release. Throughout the years Walsh has been one of Simmons' biggest supporters.

"We talked about Bill a little," Walsh said of a conversation he had with Skipper, "but when we hung up, I didn't think I'd wake up and hear that Bill Simmons was not going to be renewed."

Since Simmons' release, Shane Smith of Vice has been calling out to the Sports Guy to join Vice Sports. Smith sent out a series of gleeful tweets asking Simmons to come "home" hours after ESPN's announcement.

Vice may end up becoming the perfect home for Simmons if that's the direction he decides to go in. For one, Vice won't be suspending him for going after the already-disliked Roger Goodell.