Hi, everyone, and thank you for tuning into the 448th episode of Awards Chatter, the Hollywood

Reporter's Awards podcast, I'm the host Scott Feinberg, and my guest today is a sports writer

turned media mogul, nicknamed the sports guy, who made his name at ESPN, where he worked

from 2001 through 2015, and was behind not only a hugely popular column, but also the

BS report podcast, the 30 for 30 documentary series, and the sports and pop culture blog

Grantland.

As the New York Times put it, he quote, pioneered an intensely personal style of sports writing

that draws on frequent references to movies, television sitcoms, music, video games, even

his friends and wife, the sports gal, of course, always with a side dish of mortar-thick sports

history and analysis, close quote.

Meanwhile, the New York Times magazine called him quote, the most prominent sports writer

in America, closed quote, slate described him as quote, the most influential sports writer

of his generation, closed quote, and Rolling Stone said of him quote, no sports writer

has ever had as much success, close quote.

After leaving ESPN, he founded the sports and pop culture website The Ringer, of which

he is CEO, and he established a multi-platform relationship with HBO, for which he executive

produced the most watch sports documentary in the cable network's history, 2018's Andre

the Giant, and more recently executive produced the acclaimed documentary series Music Box,

a collection of six documentaries about the music industry, which is now in serious contention

for a best documentary or non-fiction series, Emmy nomination, Bill Simmons.

Over the course of our conversation, the 52-year-old and I discuss the roots of his love for

sports and pop culture, and how at the dawn of the internet, he escaped the restrictions

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