ESPN suspended columnist Bill Simmons Wednesday for a tirade in which he called NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a "liar." Fans immediately began criticizing the move on Twitter.
Within hours, the hashtag #freesimmons was trending. The vast majority of the tweets expressed support for Simmons and criticized the decision to penalize him.
Some observers pointed out that Simmons' suspension is longer than the penalty initially imposed on Ray Rice.
The NFL initially suspended Rice for two games after domestic violence allegations surfaced. That suspension was later made indefinite when a video went public that showed Rice knocking out his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer. Simmons' suspension resulted from comments over the way Goodell and the NFL handled the Rice case.
Others contrasted Simmons' suspension to the milder one First Take commenter host Stephen A. Smith received.
ESPN took Smith off the air for a week in July after he suggested that Palmer could have helped prevent her own assault. The comments caused an uproar, with many saying they amounted to victim-blaming.