'Grantland' Bill Simmons Fired: ESPN President John Skipper Confirms He Blindsided 'Sports Guy'

Whenever a team signs a player they hope they're picking up the missing piece of their championship puzzle. The golden goose, if you will. This was the mindset ESPN had going into their signing of Bill Simmons 15-years-ago and in terms of being a golden goose, Simmons has been the brightest and goosiest free agent pickup of them all. Page 2, Grantland and his 30 for 30 series are arguably some of the biggest non-Sports Center draws the company has ever had and somehow, despite his popularity, the relationship between the two ended with Simmons being blindsided. This report is from the mouth of ESPN President John Skipper himself.

When reporters asked Skipper whether Simmons was unaware of his impending release the President of ESPN laughed and went on to say these were not just allegations; they were indeed true.

"The narrative that you read is accurate," the President of ESPN said. "The decision I made earlier this week was business. It should not detract from the appreciation I have for Bill Simmons. He was at ESPN for almost 15 years, and did a fabulous job for us."

With an unknown firing ahead of him, Simmons may have found out about his release the same way everyone else did – on Twitter. We're not sure if the Sports Guy considers this a bad breakup but if he really did find out about this through social media he probably isn't all that happy. On top of that, Skipper went on to say ESPN will continue on with his Simmons' babies––the Grantland website and the 30 for 30 documentary series.

The most surprising thing about all of this isn't the nature of Simmons' release but how quiet he has been. Anybody who knows about the Sports Guy's body of work knows he has an opinion on absolutely everything and has the uncanny ability to compare it to either the Boston Red Sox, the NBA or professional wrestling.

What aspect of this release do you think Simmons will say this is "reminiscent" of? Maybe the comparison between he and Skipper will be like Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon from 1998? Maybe he'll compare his own silence to the silence of CM Punk after his sudden departure from WWE. Maybe Larry Bird will be thrown into this somehow?

 This also hurt my feelings.

A photo posted by Bill Simmons (@sptguy33) on Apr 16, 2015 at 8:38pm PDT