It’s on!
It appears that we have a new sports media war on the horizon, with The Ringer boss Bill Simmons and ESPN mega-star Pat McAfee taking shots at each other in recent days.
Things sparked up between the two last month after Simmons gave — to be honest — a fair critique of McAfee‘s show.
Bill Simmons with a surprisingly accurate impression of Pat McAfee
(h/t @rBillSimmonsPod) pic.twitter.com/SI4ziWOMpw
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 16, 2024
Then after some silence, the beef got going again Monday when McAfee took a jab at Simmons over a Super Bowl parlay he lost with over 8,000 people tailing the wager. The bet was made as part of a FanDuel partnership.
Pat McAfee took aim at Bill Simmons over his FanDuel parlay: “I think Bill Simmons, who has it all figured out, I think he had like 8,000 people riding alongside him. That’s a huge number that did not hit. That’s really big. Really good, Bill. You still have it… Keep running… pic.twitter.com/934SQ5IyRT
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 12, 2024
Now that both have officially taken shots, we officially have ourselves a sports media war, and Simmons launched a missile of his own just two days after McAfee took his shot. And Simmons did it so smoothly too.
It happened during a conversation about sports television ratings, which are up for just about everybody except the NBA and “whoever replaced the 12:00 p.m. SportsCenter.” (RELATED: Travis Kelce Discusses Viral Moment He Yelled At, Bumped Into Andy Reid During Super Bowl; Gets Called Out By Brother)
If you didn’t know, that last one is Pat McAfee.
LISTEN:
Bill Simmons responds to Pat McAfee on the latest BS Pod:
“Everyone’s ratings [in sports] are up except for the NBA and whoever replaced the 12pm SportsCenter. If your ratings don’t go up it’s probably a bad sign”
The Pat McAfee Show replaced the 12pm EST SportsCenter pic.twitter.com/Tpb72Ph8xs
— The r/BillSimmons Podcast 🎙️ (@rBillSimmonsPod) February 14, 2024
Grab your popcorn, ladies and gentlemen. This is gonna be good.