ESPN tosses the NFL's salad, suspends Bill Simmons for honesty.

"ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons For Calling Roger Goodell A Liar, After ESPN Reported Roger Goodell Is A Liar"

ESPN will toss the NFL's salad upon command.

Here's what I would do if I ran ESPN. I'd say to the NFL (privately, not in public): "Of course, we'll fire him if he made an unjust accusation, but the only way to know that is to give Goodell the polygraph. If he passes, we fire Simmons. If he fails, you fire Goodell." I guarantee the NFL would back off that shit faster than Chris Christie backing away from a black coffee and grapefruit breakfast, because if they did not, I would immediately let Simmons go public with the deal we offered.

For those of you who are truly naive, sports commissioners often lie. Here's why - their real job is to maximize the profits of the owners. If that can be done with the truth, fine. If not, then they lie. That's their job.

Do you really think that Bud Selig was the only guy in the United States who was not aware that baseball had a rampant steroids problem in the 90s and early 00s? Of course he knew, and he chose to do nothing about it, because the McGwire/Sosa duel and the 500-foot homers were putting butts in the seats. If the ever-honest but naive Faye Vincent had stayed in office, he would have killed that shit fast, thinking he needed to protect the integrity of the game - thus costing everyone, players as well as owners, a boatload of greenbacks, because as a general rule, banks will not accept integrity as a deposit. Vincent thought his responsibility was to the institution of baseball rather than to his bosses. He was dismissed precisely because the owners needed a dishonest bootlick in the job rather than an honest guy who thought he was supposed to be in charge.