The continued reaction to the Pablo Torre and Bill Simmons back-and-forth rages on, following the two pairing up for an exclusive sit-down on The Bill Simmons Podcast on Tuesday night. The feud stemmed from an off-color remark from Simmons critiquing Torre’s reporting of the saga with Bill Belichick and his relationship with Jordon Hudson, saying, “Belichick’s dating a girl. ‘Oh, let me do nine shows about it. Settle the f**k down.”
Before Torre’s appearance on Simmons’ podcast, former Sports Illustrated columnist Jeff Pearlman shared his perspective on the sports media beef via his TikTok account. He said Simmons has no room to speak out about journalism.
“I really hate hearing Bill Simmons question anyone’s journalistic integrity when that guy has shown literally zero journalistic integrity throughout his career,” said Pearlman. “When you’re the ‘Godfather’ of openly rooting for teams and players you cover and write about, shut the f**k up about who’s a journalist and who’s not a journalist. You’re not a journalist. At all. Zero percent. You surrendered that a long time ago.”
In addition, Pearlman, who is a New York Times bestselling author, also took a shot at Simmons’ platform, The Ringer, which he says is run by gambling money.
“Non-stop gambling on The Ringer. Non-stop,” explained Pearlman. “If it weren’t for gambling and gambling shows, you probably wouldn’t exist anymore. That’s blood money. Let’s just be honest; that is blood money you’re accepting to keep your thing going.”
Meanwhile, Torre’s appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast provided Simmons with some clarity into the reporting that he has been doing surrounding Belichick. Torre explained that the episodes of his podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out, are done in a documentary-style manner where he essentially unboxes his journalism to friends, who react in real time to the findings.
Notably, Katie Nolan and Michael Cruz Kayne appeared on the show and listened as Torre divulged he spoke with 11 sources who dealt with Hudson directly and discussed a variety of matters pertaining to her involvement in Belichick’s life.
Furthermore, in his discussion with Simmons, he argued that the story was newsworthy since Belichick is a public figure and has acted contrary to his overall character.
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