Bill Simmons, nicknamed “The Podfather” for his pioneering influence in the podcast space, is so comfortable with the medium that he casually admitted to a baffling (and illegal) habit.
Simmons welcomed Kevin Wildes, host of FS1’s First Things First, on The Bill Simmons Podcast for an episode driven by Wildes’ “half-baked ideas.” Wildes’ first half-baked idea was called “Zoom-scrolling” to solve the male loneliness epidemic.
“You know when you’re in your car, and you haven’t put your seat belt on, and then your car knows, after a certain amount of time, it will start beeping at you,” Wildes said.
“Well, as you know from driving with me, I never buckle it, and I just wait the minute until it stops doing the noise,” Simmons replied.
Billy, this is Bill Simmons. He’s the GOAT sports columnist, the Podfather, creator of Grantland, 30 for 30 and The Ringer, owns over 10 houses, and was on the last entertaining NBA Draft broadcast on ESPN over a decade ago.
His only defect? He doesn’t like wearing a seatbelt pic.twitter.com/sbOATmstrI
— The r/BillSimmons Podcast (@rBillSimmonsPod) August 10, 2026
A truly stunned Wildes said, “Hold on. You don’t buckle your seat belt, ever?”
Eh, not really,” Simmons said, adding, “I’m not proud of it. I just don’t like seat belts. Listen, I know that I’ll get skewered. I’m a bad example. Sometimes, I’ll put it on. If I’m going 95 on the highway, I might throw it on there.”
Wildes left that alone and moved on with the podcast.
Nick Wright, also of FS1’s First Things First, didn’t let Simmons off the hook that easily.
“It was one of the more wild takes I’ve ever heard,” Wright said to open his What’s Wright? with Nick Wright podcast on Tuesday. “Also, just a total missed opportunity by [Wildes] on that.”
Wright then explained the joke that Wildes apparently whiffed.
“I want to lead the charge of folks in media who Bill Simmons has influenced… please wear your seatbelt. Buckle up.”@getnickwright reacts to Bill Simmons’ WILD seat belt take pic.twitter.com/y1vIAks0tY
— What’s Wright? with Nick Wright (@WhatsWrightShow) August 11, 2026
“Bill Simmons did a podcast with Kon Knueppel, who just finished his rookie season in the NBA and was a longtime Bill Simmons fan and is 19 years old,” Wright said. “Bill’s studio, like my studio, is at his house. I was on the pod with him when he said, kind of in passing, ‘And then when I was driving Kon home…’ And then, people picked up on it, like, ‘Wait a minute, you drove him home? You didn’t, like, send a car?’
“They asked him about it, and Bill was like, ‘Yeah, I drove him home. He’s 19. years old. I didn’t want to put him in an Uber.’ It was very adorable. So, Wildes missed an easy joke there.”
And then came Wright’s actual assessment of Simmons’ worrisome ways.
“More importantly, Bill, you gotta wear your seat belt, man,” Wright said. “This isn’t 1965. Like, you just gotta wear your seat belt.
“Now, this podcast from Bill made me do some introspection on my own seat belt wearing because I realized something that makes no sense whatsoever. I wear a seat belt 100% of the time that I am driving. I wear a seat belt 100% of the time that I am riding in the front seat, and my wife is driving. […] But then I thought about it, I was like, but then in Ubers, I’m at, like, 80%, and in taxis, I might be at, like, 25%, which makes no sense.”
Wright promised that Simmons’ admission would be “a turning point for me,” and he’s now “a 100% seat belt guy all the time.” Somehow, Simmons’ flippant comment — or, in Wright’s words, “wild take” — has turned into a PSA across sports media. “The Podfather” strikes again.
“I want to lead the charge of folks in media that Bill Simmons has doing something for us, either by writing columns when we were high school or college, or by paving the way in a lot of ways, because [Wildes] did not push back nearly enough,” Wright concluded.
“That was a moment. I, honest to god think, if we do the math on it, it’s not much less reckless than if he just dropped on the pod, like, ‘Yeah, the first of every month, I do a little cocaine. I feel like if he said that, [Wildes] would have been like, ‘Whoa! Don’t do that!’ So, like, Bill, wear your seat belt, bro.”
About Megan Armstrong
Since first getting published as a student by the Kansas City Star in 2013, Megan Armstrong has gone wherever curiosity and stories have taken her, specializing in sports, media, music, and culture coverage. She also has an extensive background in interviewing and profiling public figures. Her work has appeared in Billboard, Boardroom, Bleacher Report, Esquire, GQ, GRAMMY.com, NYLON, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, UPROXX, and elsewhere.