Contentious Media Dork Calls Bill Simmons a "Jock Washer"

Throughout Bill Simmons ongoing mysterious Andy Dufresne saga with the WWL over his podcast, his NFL Picks column, and his treatment at Page 2, his thinly-veiled digs have, for the most part, only been scrutinized by the sports media watchers fascinated by the Sports Fella's every move.(Myself included.) But thanks to last week's NFL column, where he appeared to take another shot at Chris Berman and the Buffalo Bills, he's found himself a new detractor from a separate section of the media landscape. Meet Eric Alterman, popular national liberal media columnist and, apparently, ardent Buffalo Bills fan who took exception to Simmons' most recent take on the Bills' season. From the Sports Fella column:

There is one silver lining to Buffalo's Cinderella season slowly falling apart to the point that the Bills now might miss the playoffs. I am not allowed to mention it, but if you rack your brains, you will figure it out. Think about the insufferable way that Oprah attached herself to Obama, and you will be getting warm.

And this is Alterman's response:

I'll assume for now that this is a dig at Simmons' ESPN colleague, Berman, which is only further proof of anti-Bills bias at that network. It has hired two former members of the 1990s Dallas Cowboys, Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith, both of which openly root for their old team on the air; Smith even served as spokesperson for his old team when a (very) critical book was written. Such criticism is especially ironic coming from Simmons, one of the biggest jock-washers for the New England Patriots in the mainstream sports media. But profess fanship for the Bills? Tsk tsk, how insufferable...

To be fair, maybe Simmons was talking about Luke Russert... ESPN.com's Bill Simmons writes... [Media Matters]