Jeff Pearlman: The Ringer Runs On ‘Blood Money’

Trey Daubert / NBA, NFL, Videos / June 7, 2025

Jeff Pearlman: The Ringer Runs On ‘Blood Money’

Bill Simmons and Pablo Torre are in a sports media feud over the reporting on Bill Belichick. You already know my thoughts on this. Frankly, it’s embarrassing that Simmons worked over in the debate by a total tool, but that’s who Simmons is. Big mouth who can’t back it up. During the midst of this feud, Jeff Pearlman dropped a hell of a video that summed everything up pretty well.

Pearlman came over the top and dropped the hammer, blasting Simmons for essentially being a hypocrite and running a network that operates on ‘Blood Money’.

@jeffpearlmanauthor
The Bill Simmons versus Pablo Torre media feud makes my head want to explode. #billsimmons #pablotorre #media #journalism
♬ original sound – Jeff Pearlman

“On the other hand, I really hate hearing Bill Simmons question anyone’s journalistic integrity when that guy has shown literally zero journalistic integrity throughout his career. And I have a lot of respect for Bill Simmons. I think he’s created something in media that’s remarkable. I do. He created a media empire. There’s no doubt about it. I think it’s remarkable. But, when you’re the Godfather of openly rooting for teams and players you cover and write about, shut the f*ck up about who’s a journalist and who’s not a journalist. You’re not a journalist. At all. Zero percent. You surrendered that a long time ago. And with that, I feel like you’ve surrendered your right to criticize other journalists for ‘being journalists.’ Like, you just can’t do that anymore.”

“Also, not for nothing, your empire is really run by gambling money you’re taking,” Pearlman continued. “Like, non-stop gambling on The Ringer. Non-stop. Non-stop. Over and over again. ‘Brought to you by.’ Brought to you by.’ Brought to you by.’ If it weren’t for gambling and gambling shows, you probably wouldn’t exist anymore. And that’s blood money. Let’s just be honest; that is blood money you’re accepting to keep your thing going.

Jeff Pearlman Gives Great Advice To Young Journalists

Pearlman’s video is as fair as it gets, especially the Simmons part, because he’s not wrong. The Ringer actually recently proved it.

Of course, The Ringer is corrupt. I’m just glad someone finally called them out for exactly that…

@ringer did a thing earlier today (since deleted) that I’ve never seen a media company do before — Lobby for the interests of one of its key sponsors.

It would be nice, for those of us who are fans, to get a little clarity on why this happened and why it was deleted. pic.twitter.com/pOY2a4AMD9
— Alex Johnson (@AlexH_Johnson) June 1, 2025