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Jimmy Kimmel Reveals Barack Obama's Notable Sports Habit

Originally posted on The Spun | By Andrew Gould | Last updated Apr 17, 2025 3:03 PM ET

Now that he's no longer running a country, Barack Obama has more time for sports podcasts.

On Wednesday, Bill Simmons appeared on The Jimmy Kimmel Show. Kimmel, who previously employed Simmons as a writer, told The Ringer founder that Obama mentioned his affinity for The Bill Simmons Podcast when they had dinner together.

Simmons hosts the BS Podcast alongside Kimmel's cousin, Sal Iacono.

"He listens religiously to your podcast and then spoke for at least 10 minutes about the podcast and went into detail about my cousin," Kimmel said of Obama. "He likes the 'Parent Corner' you guys do at the end of the show and went into detail about my Cousin Sal's little league, wrestling, peewee football, baseball."

Kimmel said he "was going crazy" because he wanted to leave and immediately tell Simmons and Iacono about the encounter. Meanwhile, Simmons joked that he was "offended" by Kimmel's reaction.

"You were so surprised he listened to my podcast," Simmons noted. "I was like, 'Do I have like a rinky-dink podcast?' It's one of the biggest ones."

Obama came up when Simmons said ESPN "squashed" a potential interview with the presidential candidate in 2008 because they "didn't want to lean either way" politically. That decision began his simmering tension with the network, which fired him in 2015.

Simmons told the Hollywood Reporter in 2016 that he was "f******g mad" when ESPN axed the interview, especially since they later allowed Rick Reilly to pick a fantasy football team with Obama for an ESPN column.

Kimmel isn't revealing classified information, as Obama has appeared on Simmons' podcast. Before ending his second term, Obama spoke to Simmons for GQ after The Sports Guy left ESPN.

Obama urged Simmons to update The Book of Basketball and said he missed reading Simmons' work on his former ESPN website.

"'It's really aggravating not having you on Grantland,' he said, almost like I betrayed him," Simmons recalled Obama telling him. "'I go to the site, and there's no Simmons. Come on, man, it's not the same."

This article first appeared on The Spun and was syndicated with permission.

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