Bill Simmons-Pat McAfee Feud Heats Up With Latest Shot Fired By The Ringer Boss

Trenches are currently being dug for the next war of words to hit the sports media landscape. In this case, the belligerents are ESPN's sleeve-eschewing megastar Pat McAfee and The Ringer's top-cheese Bill Simmons.

This all started last month with Simmons critiquing the way McAfee analyzes sports on his show. 

It flared up again just a few days back when McAfee took a shot at Simmons' Super Bowl parlay bet that he did in partnership with FanDuel. 8,000 people took Simmons bet, however, it didn't end up hitting.

"I think Bill Simmons, who has it all figured out, I think he had like 8,000 people riding alongside him," McAfee said with a heavy dose of sarcasm. "That's a huge number that did not hit. That's really big. Really good, Bill. You still have it... Keep running your mouth, Bill."

McAfee noted that 250,000 people jumped in with him on his parlay, although he didn't mention if his hit or not.

So, if you're keeping track, McAfee's response to Simmons' initial comments means the ball is now back in Simmons' court.

The Ringer founder answered and — to his credit — kept his rebuttal short and sweet.

It came during a discussion about how TV ratings in sports had gone up in general, with only some seeing dips. Two that Simmons pointed out as having dips are the NBA and whoever replaced the noon edition of SportsCenter.

That, of course, would be Pat McAfee…

"Everyone’s ratings are up except for the NBA and whoever replaced the 12 pm SportsCenter. If your ratings don’t go up it’s probably a bad sign," Simmons said.

Oof.

Of course, this isn't the first time McAfee's underperforming TV ratings have been a source of criticism. They're not stellar, but what often gets overlooked is the substantial audience he brings online. That was what ESPN wanted to tap into.

Still, the ratings are not great, especially with First Take as a lead-in, so that will continue to be a thorn in McAfee's side. 

Well, it's now McAfee's turn to volley one back to Simmons, and surely, he will.

Let's see what angle he goes with to criticize him. My money is on him mentioning Simmons' failed HBO show.