While Bill Simmons kept Pat McAfee out of his mouth, it doesn’t take much to realize The Ringer CEO punched back at the ESPN host following controversial comments made after Super Bowl weekend. During the Feb. 14 edition of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Simmons discusses sports ratings and takes a subtle dig at McAfee’s, though he only refers to him as “whoever replaced the 12 p.m. SportsCenter.”
“Everybody’s ratings are basically up except for the NBA and whoever replaced the 12 p.m. SportsCenter,” said Simmons via The r/BillSimmons Podcast on X. If your ratings don’t go up it’s probably a bad sign.” For the uninitiated, Pat McAfee and The Pat McAfee Show replaced the noon SportsCenter in September 2023.
Simmons may be responding to McAfee’s latest sports media swipe, which was directed at him. McAfee mocked support of the former ESPNer’s FanDuel parlay, which “only” received 8,000 followers. McAfee says his show’s parlay received about 250,000 followers. It’s now McAfee’s turn with an open microphone to either retort or let water flow under the bridge. However, based on McAfee’s “me vs. the world” mentality, we wouldn’t be surprised to see some return fire.
