Google Is Your Friend, Bill
Listed in:One of the worst feelings in the world is thinking your writing or ideas have been ripped off. Even after acknowledging that sometimes people come up with the same ideas independently, it doesn't get much better. So, imagine my bewilderment when Bill Simmons, in his latest "blog" piece, complains about being ripped off when it's an idea he has zero legitimate claim on creating.
Here's what Simmons wrote in the "blog" piece:
You might remember my magazine column about creating an Us Weekly Fantasy League for my wife last spring. Well, we don't have a link for this, but if you're killing time at a newstand, check out Page 54 of this month's issue of Esquire for a writer who ripped off that idea (right down to the "I'm a baseball fantasy junkie who needed league that wouldn't drive my wife crazy" angle) and pretended it was his own. Love when that happens.
Back in May 2006, Simmons did, indeed, write about creating an Us Weekly Fantasy League. The problem is he didn't come up with the idea first, and either he ripped it off of someone else or he doesn't know how to use Google to find out who did.
What's that Google thing again? Oh. right. Searching for "fantasy fashion league" brings up, as the first result, shockingly enough, Fantasy Fashion League, a site I remember finding when I originally read Simmons's May 2006 column, and which has been around since at least August 2005.
I don't care when Simmons waxes poetic about Kevin Durant. I like that he feels comfortable making non-sequiturs about pop culture. I love that he seems to genuinely like sports and his job. He can be a brilliantly funny writer. But things like these kill me. He's basically just provided more evidence of what true Simmons bashers love to throw in Simmons fans' faces: that he's full of himself and convinced of his own brilliance.
I've got one more Simmons piece coming up, one that Ben and I have been discussing for several months now, and then I'll be done. Again, for all you zealots out there, I'm trying to figure out how the next Simmons can be saved before he needs saving, not trying to prove the mortality of your god.
