Ringer editor-in-chief Bill Simmons kicked off quite the Twitter fight Monday over his opposition to emotional support dogs. Simmons started it off Monday morning by tweeting a Washington Post story about a dog injuring a passenger on a flight. That drew some criticism.
We definitely don’t have enough things to worry about on airplanes… glad we could add emotional support animals to the mix these last few years. https://t.co/WeuzIbpyLe
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) February 26, 2018
However, it was nothing compared to the furor Simmons kicked off Monday night. He was watching and live-tweeting a LA car chase, one that ended with a police dog knocking down the suspect. This led to Simmons tweeting “I’m anti emotional support dogs but pro police dogs,” which created a firestorm. Simmons has since deleted the tweet, but here it is:
Internet remembers pic.twitter.com/kuQYCDqrc7
— Zach (@ZWal93) February 27, 2018
Here are the first two tweets in that string:
Huge car chase happening on LA local TV right now. I think it’s being directed by Michael Mann.
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) February 27, 2018
A peak LeBron chasedown block by the police dog
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) February 27, 2018
This led to a whole lot of internet mockery of Simmons, from everyone from Darth to Desus:
https://twitter.com/darth/status/968321156569845762
https://twitter.com/darth/status/968322122643845122
This is Jacob. In June of 2016, he comforted those affected by the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. Four months ago he flew to Vegas to help families of 58 people grieve. Today, he is in Parkland, Florida hugging students who lost classmates yesterday. He is our third 15/10 pic.twitter.com/YlrfUy2nE3
— WeRateDogs (@dog_rates) February 15, 2018
https://twitter.com/desusnice/status/968321935108124672
This then led into general roasting of Simmons:
As a result of his bad takes, I'm going to be boycotting Bill Simmons' weekly HBO show
wait, what?
seriously? 17 episodes?
— Robert O'Neill (@RobertONeill31) February 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/RickPaulas/status/968319496401375232
https://twitter.com/davelozo/status/968331408883273728
Simmons followed this up by tweeting a link to a Vox article criticizing emotional support animals:
Also —- https://t.co/p9gv5pBanj
— Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) February 27, 2018
And continued to get roasted by the internet:
You're little more than an emotional support animal for white New England Sports Bros, so kindly exit stage left, dinkus
— Grey Liotta (@Eric_Lindros) February 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/EoinHiggins_/status/968335048742236161
At least he’s making that Vox partnership work, though.