By the end of Bill Simmons’ interview with Pablo Torre, it seemed reasonable to believe that The Ringer founder’s issue with the Meadowlark Media host’s reporting on Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson largely stemmed from his New England Patriots fandom.
But while Simmons may have thought he was merely representing his hometown when he trashed Torre’s reporting and subsequent media appearances, one of Boston’s biggest radio hosts doesn’t see it that way.
During Wednesday’s episode of Toucher & Hardy, host Fred Toucher addressed this week’s biggest sports media beef. And in doing so, he took aim at Simmons, stating that the Sports Guy’s stance doesn’t accurately reflect how people in Boston actually feel about Belichick in 2025.
“This is something that happens to people, it happened to me with Detroit,” Toucher said in reference to his own hometown. “You move away from the city you grew up in and then all of a sudden you act about it in a way that the people still living there don’t act. When you move is the age you always will be in terms of your attitude toward that city.
“… He’s this big Belichick defender guy, when that’s not how most people feel anymore. So he feels like he’s sticking up for Belichick and sticking up for the people of Boston. And the thing is, he’s not. I can tell you firsthand that the people from Boston are enjoying this as much as anyone.”
The 98.5 The Sports Hub morning show proceeded to dissect clips from Torre’s appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, in which the Pablo Torre Finds Out host masterfully defended his work. That prompted the longtime Boston radio host to further criticize Simmons for not displaying the same level of animosity toward Torre during the interview that he did while sideswiping him during last week’s episode of The Rewatchables, which covered the 1978 film “Heaven Can Wait.”
“But Bill Simmons is kind of a p*ssy. I mean, you did say that stuff about the guy,” Toucher said. “And unless you’re really good friends and you’re just busting balls, but it didn’t sound like that. And so, I mean, Bill’s a p*ssy, like he’s just been a p***y, he immediately was a p*ssy about it. Now off-air before he comes on, you can shake his hand like, look, you don’t want to fight the guy. But you did say that stuff about him. You got to be like, ‘That was ridiculous. like, what the hell are you doing?'”
“Not only did you say that stuff about the guy, he’s at your front door immediately after you did that,” co-host Rob “Hardy” Poole added.
Toucher also noted the irony of Simmons criticizing Torre’s content choices while on a podcast episode dedicated to recapping a 47-year-old movie. And just as Pablo Torre did, he pointed out that the Belichick-Hudson relationship is, in fact, a much more significant news story than Bill Simmons attempted to downplay it as.
Fred Toucher isn’t the only sports media personality connected to Boston who believes that Simmons’ approach to this entire situation was misguided. And while Katie Nolan didn’t go as far as to call Simmons names, most seem to agree that his criticism of Torre carried little weight and was largely the product of his apparent blind loyalty to his favorite football coach.