Podbit · The Bill Simmons Podcast
After Bellingham trash-talked Messi and got hit with the smirk heard round the world, the internet exploded. Bill Simmons argued the Messi smirk meme will go down as a top-5 sports meme of all time — and read five De Niro film comparisons from a listener email.
Where this was said
At 28:05 · chapter starts 20:19
Bill launches the losers segment with Tuchel, the coach hired to make England bold who instead implemented the most conservative strategy imaginable the moment they went ahead. Chris Ryan argues Tuchel lost control of the midfield and panicked 15 minutes too early, while Anthony focuses on the baffling exclusion of Bukayo Saka — the same player who then scored a hat trick in the meaningless third-place match. Christian Pulisic follows: not just for the injury that cut his tournament short, but for deeper questions about his leadership, his relationship with teammates and coaches, and the ominous fact that ex-players felt it was open season to criticize him the moment the US exited. FIFA is next, criticized for hydration breaks in air-conditioned domes — effectively commercial timeouts, Bill says — and for rigging the World Cup hosting rotation to funnel the 2034 event to Saudi Arabia [1] — Anthony Dabbundo "Anthony Dabbundo defended VAR as getting more calls right than the pre-VAR era ever did. Chris Ryan countered that it kills the cathartic g…" 57:50 . VAR generates the most back-and-forth: Anthony argues it gets dramatically more calls right than the pre-VAR era, while Chris says it kills momentum and gives managers an invisible reset button; Bill proposes a blue card / sin bin as a smarter middle ground than the current all-or-nothing red card system.
Lionel Messi led the tournament in goals plus assists at age 39, including a hat trick in Argentina's first game, cementing his status as the best player at the 2026 World Cup.
Messi led the 2026 World Cup in goals plus assists at age 39, then wandered into scrums where much bigger opponents simply stepped aside because he was God. The Ronaldo-or-Maradona debate is finished — it's Messi and then everyone else.
Lamine Yamal, playing through a hamstring injury at the 2026 World Cup, has now won both the Euros and the World Cup before turning 21, arguably the most accomplished resume of any under-21 player ever.
Lawrence, Kansas became an Algerian outpost. Mexicans and Koreans sang Gangnam Style together in LA on opening day. The 40-city 2026 World Cup delivered cultural moments nobody predicted — and in a divided country, it arrived at exactly the right time.
Thomas Tuchel was brought in to make England aggressive. Instead, he parked the bus up 1-0 against Argentina — leaving Saka on the bench, keeping a gassed Harry Kane on, and letting Messi camp on the right side until Enzo Fernandez's strike leveled it. Not one England fan thought this was right.
Thomas's wife deferred her CrossFit career — she's in the global top 1% of athletes — to put him through law school debt-free. He wants her to chase the dream now; she wants the emergency fund and house down payment first. On a $200K lawyer income with no debt, the opportunity cost is just a few months of slower saving.
Underground calisthenics battles are exactly like UFC meets a rap battle — 150 people crowded around a circle, fighters walking out with masks and chains, nicknames like 'Extra Money' vs 'Calisthenics the Prince,' and people throwing money and betting. The battle set: 100 burpees, 50 muscle-ups, 75 dips, 75 squats with a 65-pound dumbbell. This is the next big spectator sport.
Rico Verhoeven controlled the undisputed heavyweight boxing champion for approximately 10 rounds — and had his appeal upheld when officials admitted the fight was stopped after the bell. The result was never overturned. Rogan calls it either incompetence or corruption, and argues the money behind Usyk made an upset politically inconvenient.
Rogan lays out a blunt case: boxing's 3-judge system is structurally broken, and the judges know who the promoter wants to win. Glory's 5-judge format is the right model. Corruption doesn't have to be conscious — just knowing Usyk is the cash cow is enough to tilt the scales.
With the Usyk-Wilder fight stalling and Fury-Joshua coming too late, the real fight the world wants is the rematch. Rico is a free agent. Usyk vacated his belts. The story is unfinished and both Rogan and Rico know it. His Excellency Turki Alasheikh already called for it ringside — the question is money.
Rico texted Jason Statham during the Canelo-Crawford fight. Statham showed Rico's highlight videos to promoters. Two days later, Rico was on a call about fighting Anthony Joshua. When Joshua pulled out, Rico pitched Usyk himself — Undisputed vs. Undisputed. Usyk said yes in two weeks. The whole thing started with one text.
Every heavyweight who faced Usyk tried to move to the right — straight into his power hand. Rico and Peter Fury identified the obvious solution: move left, away from the left hand, and smother him with size. It sounds simple. Nobody had done it. That one adjustment was the foundation of 10 dominant rounds.
MMA fans boo when fights go to the ground. They love stand-up. Kickboxing is pure stand-up. Yet it barely exists in America while boxing and MMA are enormous. Rogan's diagnosis: no promotion machine. If the UFC got behind kickboxing the way they've built MMA, it would explode. The talent is there — the storytelling machine is not.
A nation of 17 million people gave the world Ramon Deckers, Peter Aerts, Badr Hari, Melvin Manhoef, Rob Kamen, Ernesto Hoost, and Rico Verhoeven. Rico's theory: the country is so small that every gym shares knowledge freely. In the US, you need a flight. In Holland, you drive 40 minutes and spar the national champion.
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