How Bill Simmons Changed Sports Writing Forever

I'm not embarrassed to admit it: I did a Bill Simmons impression in college.

So did every other sports writer for the better part of 20 years.

I was first introduced to Simmons by my High School guidance counselor, who couldn't believe I hadn't already heard of Grantland considering I was an aspiring sports journalist at the time.

Then of course I read The Book of Basketball and became an avid listener to the BS pod, delighting in 14-minute diatribes comparing [insert NBA player] to [insert supporting actor in a '90s action movie].

It was refreshing — not merely because it was entertaining, but because Simmons opened the door for sports writers to act like human beings. He's a proud Boston homer — fuck objectivity. He likes pop culture, so he referenced it... and guess what? Pop culture is popular. People were dying for someone to drop the buttoned-up beat-reporter schtick and embrace a columnist with true personality.

When I first became the sports editor of the University of Wisconsin newspaper, The Badger Herald, I felt like my sports dreams had come true. I had a pass to games, practices, and press conferences at one of the best sports schools in the country. That included sitting high above the field at Camp Randall in the press box for Badger home games, rubbing shoulders with real professionals.

These were people I respected immensely, and still do, but I'll never forget the moment I got the stink eye from 20+ journalists for clapping my hands in excitement for a Badger TD.

I was mortified... until I remembered that 90% of the people in the room were feeling the exact same jubilation as myself — only they had subscribed to the orthodoxy that a rooting interest would lose them the respect of their peers.

That was only a few years ago, and long after Simmons already made his mark. But even still, the old habits die hard. I'm not so sure companies like Barstool would look remotely the same without Simmons leading the way.

I fully subscribed to the Simmons school when writing my column in college. I probably went a bit too far, like the time I called Jonathan Taylor a member of a "bourgeois class of running backs " who are "merely reaping the benefits of proletariat offensive linemen"

Bill Simmons gave a new generation of sports writers permission to go full throttle toward whatever tangent, take, or joke they wanted — in the process changing the industry forever.