Bill Simmons Returns, Doesn't Call Out ESPN, Says He Was Bored So He Came Up With A New Way To Rank NFL Teams

Despite promising to "go public" if he was reprimanded by ESPN for the rant, Simmons took the high road, simply saying he was excited to be back. He didn't mention the suspension directly or address any of the speculation about him staying or not staying with ESPN.

He said he was "super bored" during his three-week suspension so he threw himself into gambling on the NFL season.

From the podcast:

"You know what happens when you aren't working for three weeks? You start to create all these documents so you can gamble on football better. ... I've never been more into an NFL season from a gambling standpoint because I've honestly not had that much spare time in a long time."

One of his projects was coming up with a system for ranking NFL teams based on different types of results.

"So I was trying to figure out - there's three types of results in the NFL: you either legitimately win, you legitimately lose, or it's a game that either team could have won. So I have these records I've been keeping for each team ... yeah ... and Seattle's record right now is 2-3-1: they have two legitimate wins, three legitimate losses, and one either/or game."

Sounds fun. His conclusion is that Denver, Dallas, and Indianapolis are the best teams.

Simmons' ESPN contract expires next year. If he shocks everyone and leaves ESPN, perhaps we'll hear his true feelings then.