Simmons On Carolla: "He Has Reached Manny Ramirez Status"

Bill Simmons had himself a chat yesterday with the baccalaureates over at newly launched ESPN The Boston, and between Road House jokes, he shared a few catty thoughts about Adam Carolla — thoughts apparently deemed too catty by ESPN.

You can read the chat here. A handful of exchanges allude to Carolla and what is now known the world over as the Retard Chicken Pussy Address.

Patrick Swayze (Heaven) You reference me and my movies in 85 percent of your career columns and all you can say for a tribute is RIP?

Bill Simmons (8:37 PM) I'm still sorting out my thoughts. This might be the week to do the special Road House podcast with Dameshek though. I'd invite Carolla but the authorities are still looking for him after he blew up the Bristol bridge.

Drew (Seattle) speaking of Carolla, is it true you're no longer allowed on his podcast? How the might have fallen..

Bill Simmons (8:39 PM) No. It's not true. It was never true.

John (Philly) Did you even bother calling Carolla to yell at him, or was it like how you treat that one uncle who gets way to drunk at parties but nobody ever says anything to his face?

Bill Simmons (8:40 PM) He has reached Manny Ramirez status. You just shrug your shoulders and say that it was "Adam being Adam." This is hard to explain to other people though. Especially people you work for.

Missing is the following comment, which an editor saw fit to delete soon after it appeared (but which was up long enough for a user on an Adam Carolla Message Board to make note of it.)

Mike (Reno) If it's not true how come you haven't been on his podcast recently, we all know Disney cut your balls off Bill, just admit it and move on.

That may or may not have prompted this response from Simmons, also deleted:

Bill Simmons See, this is why Carolla's stupid rant made me mad. Carolla always leaves out the part where you have to drive to some warehouse in the middle of nowhere California at specific times of his convenience to do his podcast... where he records the pod is 35-40 mins from me. Also, he made it seem like his podcast is doing better numbers than mine and it's not true - my download numbers are better than his. His ITunes ranking is higher because that's how people consume his pod. People consume mine from ESPN.com. I would take the Pepsi Download challenge against him any time. And also, I wasn't banned. So other than that, he made some solid points.

(In an e-mail, Simmons writes: "Can't comment on things deleted from chats unfortunately.")

So, to recap: The Sports Fella goes on Carolla's podcast in February and talks about poop. This leads to what Carolla believes to be an ESPN ban preventing any of its personalities, including Simmons and something called Dave Dameshek, from appearing on his show. Simmons and Dameshek deny that any such ban exists. Then Simmons, annoyed at the suggestion that his podcast derives a substantial benefit from an appearance on Carolla's, goes a step farther in his chat and does the podcasting equivalent of comparing dick sizes, something the alleged retard chicken pussies at ESPN quickly scrub from the record. This is particularly rich. He may have been wrong about the ban, but everything Carolla said in his rant about ESPN's paternalistic handling of its audience was borne out the moment an editor took a red pen to Simmons' chat. Somewhere amid all the "retards" and "pussies," the man actually had a point. I will now light myself on fire.

Chat with Bill Simmons [ESPN] Bill Simmons addresses some Carolla ?s on his chat, DEEE-LEEEEEEEETE! [The Adam Carolla Messageboard]