and Red Sox announcer Jerry Remy feuded over the presidency of Red Sox Nation. The Red Sox asked Simmons to run for the ceremonial position and he accepted. In a candidate's memo, Simmons remarked that he was a better choice than Remy because he is not a smoker. Remy criticized Simmons for about five minutes during the July 16, 2007 NESN broadcast of a Red Sox - Royals game. Simmons later removed himself from consideration and Remy was named president. In September 2017, Simmons voiced his support for Jemele Hill, who became involved in controversy after tweeting her personal views on Donald Trump. On September 1, 2021, The New York Times published an investigation into The Ringer′s workplace culture. It included accusations that Simmons had tried to marginalize The Ringer′s newly-formed union, through tactics such as bringing in contract workers and unfollowing writers on Twitter who had expressed support for the union. On April 26 2022, Simmons drew criticism from current and former NBA players over his comment stating "...fuck Jalen Green" when discussing his choices for All-Rookie first team. Simmons later clarified that the expletive was a joke and not a personal attack, and that he was simply indicating his preference for Herb Jones as a candidate for the All-Rookie team. On May 24, 2022, Simmons hosted Jalen Green as a guest on his podcast, where the two discussed the controversy and cleared the air. Conflicts with ESPN Simmons has, at times, had a tense and public battle with ESPN about creative freedom and censorship. In May 2008, Simmons was embroiled in a dispute with management at ESPN.com. When asked by the editors of Deadspin why he had not written a new column in over two weeks, he said that he was writing less because he loved writing his column and believed that he and ESPN had come to an agreement "on creative lines, media criticism rules, the promotion of the column and everything else on ESPN.com" but within a few months all of those things changed. A month before the feud erupted, Simmons was scheduled to interview then-senator Barack Obama for a podcast. Obama was still running against then-senator Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination at the time. ESPN nixed the interview, saying that they would allow its reporters and columnists to interview a presidential candidate only after the nomination had been finalized. In November 2008, according to