ESPN subs: dropped from 100M to 76M
ESPN's cable subscriber count fell from a peak of 100 million to around 76 million, with ESPN+ at only 5.5 million standalone subscribers.
Snapshot · The Bill Simmons Podcast
Part 1: USA’s World Cup Collapse, Basebrawls, Jets Optimism, Life in The G-League and ‘The OC’ 20 Years Later | with Gabe York and Zoe Simmons
Explore episode
Aug 7, 2023
Where this was said
Six-Pack Opens
At 39:50 · chapter starts 4:30
With the anger still fresh, Bill dissects a USWNT disaster that he insists was entirely predictable. The team opened the World Cup beating Vietnam by only 3-0 in a bracket where goal differential mattered enormously — a massive red flag. He traces a pattern of institutional denial around Alex Morgan: she scored just 2 goals in 17 World Cup appearances outside the Thailand blowout [1] — Bill Simmons "Take away the 13-0 Thailand thrashing and Alex Morgan scored 2 goals in 17 World Cup games. Yet she played 95 minutes in the Sweden match. …" 07:10 , yet she started every minute of every game. Megan Rapinoe, at 37, came on for the final 25 minutes and missed the decisive penalty. Carli Lloyd, serving as a Fox studio analyst, had been calling these problems all summer and was dismissed as unpatriotic [2] — Bill Simmons "Carly Lloyd was like the one person in the horror movie who knows the house is haunted and everybody's like, shut up. You're not patriotic.…" 06:01 — Bill says history has fully vindicated her. He also points to the team's identity confusion: they had real speed in Trinity Rodman, Sophia Smith, and teenage prodigy Alyssa Thompson but inexplicably chose not to use it. The broader lesson, he argues, applies to sports and life: loyalty to past performance — not current form — is a losing strategy. He closes by comparing the team's generational in-between moment to the 2004 USA Olympic basketball squad.
The USWNT World Cup Collapse: Red Flags Ignored
The US women's team lost to Sweden on penalties, scoreless in their last two games. Bill Simmons argues the warning signs were everywhere — aging stars, wrong lineup choices, a coach who won't be seen again — and only Carli Lloyd was brave enough to say it out loud.
Alex Morgan: 2 goals in 17 WC games
Excluding the 13-0 Thailand game, Alex Morgan scored only 2 goals in her last 17 World Cup matches, yet remained the starting striker.
Alex Morgan's Inconvenient Stats
Take away the 13-0 Thailand thrashing and Alex Morgan scored 2 goals in 17 World Cup games. Yet she played 95 minutes in the Sweden match. Bill Simmons draws a direct line from that refusal to confront declining performance to the team's shocking early exit.
Megan Rapinoe age: 37 at World Cup
Rapinoe, at 37, came on in the last 25 minutes of the Sweden game and missed the deciding penalty kick.
Jaylen Brown's $304M Question
Jaylen Brown's $304 million extension is simultaneously the only logical move and a potential franchise-killer. The Celtics are title favorites with their Brown-Tatum core intact, but if Brown decides Boston isn't where he wants to be, the salary makes a fair trade nearly impossible.
Jaylen Brown contract: $304M
Jaylen Brown signed a $304 million supermax extension with the Celtics, making him one of the highest-paid players in NBA history.
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