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Bill Simmons dubs Columbus Blue Jackets as most irrelevant professional sports franchise
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- Bill Simmons dubs Columbus Blue Jackets as most irrelevant professional sports franchise
The Columbus Blue Jackets are near and dear to Columbus hockey fans, but one sports podcaster thinks they are rather irrelevant.
On a Nov. 18 episode of " The Bill Simmons Podcast ," sports media personality and The Ringer CEO Bill Simmons labeled the Blue Jackets as the most irrelevant franchise in professional sports when answering a fan question and combing through all four American sports franchises for his answer.
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During the episode, Simmons read the question sent in by a fan that prompted his research, "Who to you is the most irrelevant franchise in professional sports? They're too bad to make the playoffs, but not so bad they're top in the news with their total dysfunction. It's a team that's usually in a small market. Bonus points if their location name is generic."
In the question, the commenter named "Patrick B" wrote, "I'll assume it's my Columbus Blue Jackets , who are celebrating their 26th season and only have a total of 15 franchise playoff wins."
Simmons agreed with the fans' sentiment. After ruling out franchises that he thought were too dysfunctional and/or had a case for relevance in the past, Simmons reviewed the case for the Blue Jackets, citing lack of playoff appearances and wins as the main factors for irrelevance.
"I've never heard a single conversation about the Blue Jackets," Simmons said. "Now, granted, I don't have a ton of hockey fans in my life, but I've never heard a convo about them."
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He mentioned that the Blue Jackets have never advanced past the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, later contradicting himself when he said they swept the Florida Panthers in the 2019 playoffs (a factual error because the Blue Jackets swept the Tampa Bay Lightning , not the Panthers, in 2019).
Bill Simmons dubbed the Blue Jackets as the most irrelevant franchise in professional sports in a Nov. 18 podcast episode.
When discussing notable Blue Jackets stories in the news, he brought up the death of Johnny Gaudreau , which he said was "really sad," and backup goalie Matiss Kivlenieks ' firework accident that led to his death.
Simmons then said he used Google's artificial intelligence browser Gemini to look up the Blue Jackets' rival in the NHL, with the AI bot replying with the Pittsburgh Penguins . He then asked Gemini about the Penguins' rival, which suggested four teams ( Philadelphia Flyers , Washington Capitals , New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils ), not including the Blue Jackets, as their biggest rival.
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"I can't believe how boring all that is. Unbelievable. Anyway, that's your answer," Simmons said.
Dan Aulbach is the Columbus Dispatch's Breaking & Trending Sports Reporter. He can be reached at daulbach@dispatch.com or @aulbachdan on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Blue Jackets called most irrelevant team in pro sports by Bill Simmons
