Dismissed personality Bill Simmons took $5 million a year from ESPN but The Network still won

I don’t know how much man crush-meets-professional-jealousy taints my opinion of former Grantland chief Bill Simmons. Let’s just say it’s somewhere between 20 and 90 percent.

By Andrew Pridgen

Bill Simmons hasn’t been an impressive writer since his AOL days…making fun of ESPN and has never broken a story as much as moved it one smarmy step beyond a press release. That’s why I can’t say I’m saddened by his break up with The Network as much as I am envious of all the coin he pilfered for showing up to work dressed like a Sigma Nu pledge and chopping it up with MTV also-rans about Paul Rudd.

The Grantland vertical he helped build is touted as formidable by the Bristol-based parent company, but its numbers don’t necessarily bear that out. ComScore estimates Grantland reached fewer than 5 million people/month over the last calendar year. Were it not backed…