Bill Simmons is a very funny man who just happens to be a sports nut. Not long ago, he was a local Boston sports writer with a relatively small cult following. After he was called up to ESPN (he writes a column for ESPN Magazine called ‘Page 2‘), he quickly made the jump to fellow Disney entity ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ as a writer. This didn’t last long, and now he’s back writing for ESPN – and penning an original, animated ESPN series. Premiering in November of 2004, this series of Flash shorts (under 2 minutes an episode) is animated by New York’s Funny Garbage. The first series of 12-shorts is currently archived at the Sports Guy website, and a second season is due to drop next week. It’s a fairly limited animation, but it’s well designed, and the layouts are clean. The loose and generous line-style reminds me of ‘Pink Donkey and Fly‘ and ‘B. Happy,’ two Web Premiere Toons also produced by Funny Garbage a few years back. My only issue with the online version is the player, which streams fine on my DSL connection, but why not leave the shorts in their native Flash format? Regardless, it’s a good watch, and might even be fun for those without a sports-watching addiction.

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