Earlier in the week, Pablo Torre appeared on a podcast with Bill Simmons to discuss criticism surrounding his recent reporting regarding University of North Carolina head coach Bill Belichick and his relationship with Jordon Hudson. The story has garnered significant national media attention and resulted in Simmons questioning Torre’s journalism, resulting in the perception of a genuine media beef. Fred Toucher, who has been following the story as a radio host at 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston, expounded on the situation between the two media personalities during the Wednesday edition of his show.
Toucher explained that the idea of the reporting being thought of as solely about Belichick dating a younger woman is ludicrous and contended that Simmons knows it goes way beyond that point. Furthermore, he asked why it was bad for Torre to be doing coverage on the topic when Simmons himself is doing episodes of The Rewatchables about older movies such as “Heaven Can Wait.” With Simmons moving away from the Boston-Manchester area, Toucher asserted that some people who depart cities from which they grew up act in a manner differently than those still living there.
“If Bill Simmons moved when he was 25-26 and he was a super fanboy, he’s still in that suspended stage of his life,” Toucher said. “He’s emotionally still in that stage, so he’s moved on, and then everyone who’s here is not like that anymore. So he’s this big Belichick defender guy when that’s not how most people feel anymore, so he feels like he’s sticking up for Belichick and sticking up for the people of Boston, and the thing is he’s not.”
Rob “Hardy” Poole, the co-host of the morning drive program, felt that Simmons tried to diffuse the situation right away. Toucher had preceded such by saying that Torre was not afraid of anything and stepping directly into the proverbial lion’s den, but upon hearing the opening clip, did not want to listen to any more unless they were genuinely angry at one another.
“But Bill Simmons is kind of a p***y,” Toucher explained. “You did say that stuff about the guy, and unless you’re really good friends and you’re just busting balls, but it didn’t sound like that, and so Bill’s a p***y, he’s just been a p***y, he immediately was a p***y about it. Now off-air before he comes on, you can shake his hand – like, look, you don’t want to fight the guy, but you did say that stuff about him. You got to be like, ‘That was ridiculous. What the hell are you doing?’”
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