Bill Simmons explains why Deflategate is ‘the perfect Boston sports story’

Bill Simmons knows Boston. Mike Windle/Getty Images for Vanity Fair

By Chris Greenberg

October 18, 2015

2 minutes to read

Bill Simmons knows Boston. He is also pretty familiar with Deflategate.

The multi-platform media star formerly known as The Boston Sports Guy explained why the city and the scandal were actually “perfect’’ for each other during a recent interview on CBS Radio 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher and Rich program.

“It was the perfect Boston sports story,’’ Simmons said on Thursday. “I lived in Massachussetts for I think 26 of the first 31 years of my life or something like that, including 10 after college in Charlestown. Boston is the ultimate us-against-everyone-else city. It’s the most provincial city in the world, and I mean that as a compliment. This is the city that kicked out the British in the 1770’s and that’s just the mentality that is still here. It’s like you’re either from here and if you’re not from here then why wouldn’t you want to live here? Why would you leave? When I moved to L.A. I can’t tell you how emails I got over the next few years from people like ‘why won’t you move back? What’s wrong with you? When are you coming back?’ Because that’s what’s great about Boston, people honestly believe it’s the best city in the world.’’

Click HERE to listen to entire segment.

In addition to discussing his exit from ESPN with Toucher and Rich, Simmons, who has made several notable radio appearances after relaunching his successful podcast earlier this month, also compared Boston’s reaction to Deflategate to the failure of the Olympic 2024 campaign.

“When you look at what happened to Brady, when you look at the Olympic bid, it’s all based out of the same kind of seed: ‘Hey, we have a great thing here, don’t come in and mess with us.’ That’s what Boston is. That’s why I love it. That’s why it’s been so much fun to root for the teams,’’ he continued. “But Goodell trying to mess with the Patriots’ Super Bowl season? You couldn’t have picked a worse city.’’

These comments about Boston’s short-lived Olympic bid echoed others made by Simmons earlier this month at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit. According to Simmons, one of the reasons the campaign to bring the 2024 games to Boston was “idiotic’’ was because the city “is the most provincial place on the planet.’’