Friction.

It’s all around us. You might say friction is what makes the world go ‘round. A constant battle between irresistible forces meeting immovable objects. In the end, something gives.

Here in New England we see examples of friction each winter in the form of ice dams on the edge of our roofs. If the water has no place to go it backs up under the shingles and this results in a steady stream of water inside your house. This is not a good thing. I don’t wait for spring to remove the ice dam, I’m out there raking the snow off the roof. I will use calcium tablets to melt the ice, giving the water a place to go other than my bedroom.

Years ago a manager of mine remarked about how friction in the office often results in one of two things happening. The friction is either removed at one’s leisure or the friction builds until there is a catastrophic event such as an earthquake.

And sometimes, a little bit of both can happen. Such is the case of Bill Simmons.

I’m not going to go through all the details of Bill’s career here. But I will tell you that Bill Simmons is one of the reasons I enjoy writing. I’ve enjoyed his articles since he started as the Boston Sports Guy. Bill was a regular guy, just some blogger, someone with opinions, and his words would often be disrupting the status quo. He even had the big-name legitimate sportswriters troll him in their columns.

I was a fan, and still am today. I’ve even done some posts in a similar style to his, including one of my favorites where I compare the MVP Summit to the movie Fight Club. Reading his columns made me see that writing could be fun. 

Bill was getting ahead in this world by creating friction. There are many people out there that will tell you creating friction, causing a disruption, is a good thing. It’s what moves us forward, like what Steve Jobs or Bill Gates did, and what Elon Musk is doing now.

But there’s a fine line between someone who is a disrupter, a causer of friction, and someone who is just being an asshat.

A disrupter that causes friction and inspires others to become something better than they already are is a leader. That’s how I saw Bill, and still do today.

A disrupter that causes friction by pushing people around, much like a bully on a playground, is an asshat. It doesn’t matter if you have fans or supporters. It shouldn’t be your life goal to have half the people in the room love you and the other half hate you. To lead is to serve, and if your friction is not seen as a service then you are not viewed as a leader.

I now see both sides of Bill Simmons. I see him as someone inspiring us to be where we needed or wanted to be with regards to sports entertainment. But there is a different Bill Simmons, someone who is pushing his way around. Even the name “Sports Guy” drew ire from some. I remember Dan Shaughnessy commenting about how a person could now become an astronaut by calling themself “Joe the Astronaut Guy”.

If Bill were a leader, he’d still have a job. He would have chosen his words carefully. He dared ESPN to fire him last week, and that’s what ESPN did.

And I completely understand why.

Let me explain.

When I was still playing basketball we would talk about how there was always someone a little bigger, a little quicker, and a little stronger than we were. And you could continue naming names until you got to the top which was, at the time, Michael Jordan (although there was always some debate about that).  Last week Bill talked about Roger Goodell having the “testicular fortitude” to address the issue of Tom Brady and deflated footballs. (Is “ovarian fortitude” a thing? If not, it should be, and I bet it’s every bit as strong as testicular fortitude. But I digress).

When Bill made that remark he was showing his own testicular fortitude by doing so. I’m certain it felt good for him, too. Like he was disrupting things for all the right reasons.

But Bill forgot one thing.

He forgot that ESPN has more testicular fortitude than Bill Simmons.

Just as there is always a better player, there is always someone with more testicular fortitude. I’m certain I could write something on this blog that would create enough friction for me to lose my job at SolarWinds. Or perhaps lose my MVP status with Microsoft. Both of those entities have more testicular fortitude than I do and if I crossed a line they wouldn’t hesitate to act. Bad behavior should not go unpunished forever.

There is always a cost, benefit, and risk to anything in life. And when you create friction, you alter that equation. Sometimes it can be in your favor, and sometimes it is not. And in the case of Bill Simmons you could even argue that his pushing helped lead to the NFL penalties imposed upon Tom Brady. It’s more probable than not that the friction Bill created last week caused an earthquake for everyone.

So, yeah, thanks for that Bill. Nice job there.

But the #hardtruth here is that it pays to be an asshat. Bill Simmons was making upwards of $5 million a year. “Dicks get clicks” is how I refer to this, and I bet Don Henley is working on getting that phrase into an updated version of Dirty Laundry. Because it’s true, people crave such drama, such divisiveness.

And that’s why we have talking heads when we once had reporters. Dirty laundry. People pay for the drama. They pay to watch people bully others. They pay to let their thinking done by someone else.

They pay for friction.

Until they don’t.

Earlier this year I was doing a whirlwind tour of Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Along the way I came across a friend who follows me on Twitter. He commented on a conversation I had with someone else on Twitter, a conversation where I was arguing. He told me that it didn’t make either one of us look good.

Maybe the tide is turning, finally. Maybe ESPN is taking a stand here and showing that bad behavior will no longer be rewarded, or tolerated. Even the BBC stood up to Jeremy Clarkson for his awful behavior.

I can only hope we see more examples in the coming months and years of people standing up and saying “enough”. The world doesn’t need more friction. We’ve got enough already.

Then again, being an asshat does seem to pay pretty well.