Ben Affleck turned out to be the highlight from the debut episode of Bill Simmons’ new HBO show, Any Given Wednesday, going on a f-bomb fueled rant about DeflateGate and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s vendetta against the New England Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady.

If you missed the show or haven’t yet seen the segment, take a look. Oh, and if you’re at work, maybe use headphones.

Affleck’s increasing emotion, flushed appearance and slightly slurred speech led many to speculate that he was drunk when cutting loose about DeflateGate. Simmons went on Twitter after the show to clarify that the interview was taped in the morning and Affleck simply got really worked up about a subject for which he obviously holds great passion.

Personally, I think it’s possible that Affleck was jet-lagged if he flew from London, where he’s playing Batman in Justice League, to Los Angeles to tape his interview with Simmons. Who among us hasn’t been at least a bit out of whack after an international flight.

Maybe Affleck has some kind of anxiety about appearing on TV. When he appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote Batman v Superman last December, Affleck’s physical appearance was similarly puffy and his behavior seemed odd. That is total speculation, obviously. But it certainly came to mind while watching Affleck become increasingly unhinged while talking to Simmons.

I also wonder if Affleck expected Simmons to stop him at some point as he was digging deeper into his outrage, and was surprised when the cameras kept recording and he wasn’t told to take it down a notch. Again, total speculation. But maybe Affleck’s uncertain speech at times came from him thinking, “Oh, wow — they’re letting me do this. OK, I’ll keep going. Keep pushing. More fucks!”

Speculation aside, Affleck has no regrets about his DeflateGate tirade, nor the number of f-bombs he dropped during what essentially became an anti-NFL monologue. Well, OK — maybe he went just a bit overboard, as he acknowledged on Twitter.

By the way, our Liam McGuire counted 19 fucks, for what that’s worth. (And we can vouch for the research he put into that.) You know, give or take a fuck. I mean, once Affleck went past 12, the exact number might not have mattered anymore.

OK, maybe we should let Affleck get back to playing Batman again. Not doing so clearly made him a bit irritable. For everyone’s sake on the Justice League set, hopefully that movie is done filming by the time football season begins.

[Variety]

About Ian Casselberry

Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.

Comments are closed.