In a magazine article posted online on Tuesday, When it’s time to walk away, Bill “the Sports Guy” Simmons announced his retirement from ESPN the Magazine. The announcement came in an article devoted to his father, Dr. Bill Simmons, AKA the Sports Dad, who recently retired as a school superintendent after 30 years in that position.

“I’m retiring from this space in ESPN The Magazine after seven happy years” writes Simmons. “Like my father and his superintendency, The Magazine was never an ideal match for me — I hate advance deadlines and word counts — and yet, I couldn’t be happier with how it all turned out. It’s just time for me to try some new things, that’s all.” While not implicitly stated in the article, Simmons cleared up that he will continue to post at ESPN.com on the Sports Guy Twitter Page “Just an FYI (some people seem confused): I only gave up my mag column. Moved all my eggs into the ESPN.com basket for now.” His content will still be at ESPN’s the Sports Guys World.

The Sports Guy is one of the earliest “celebrities” whose career was made possible by the Internet. He started posting at his own site in the 1990s and gained a loyal audience in New England, probably due to his loyal support of all Boston sports teams, especially the Red Sox, Celtics and Patriots. Simmons, reporting as an outsider, could did not have the access the local sportswriters had to athletes, and used his space to blast both athletes and reporters. Simmons in knows for mixing humor as well as plenty of pop culture references into his writing. Simmons’ audience grew, and eventually his column was bought out by ESPN seven years ago. Since then he has been writing a monthly article for ESPN the Magazine as well as longer, sometimes less-polished articles for ESPN’s Page Two. After the Boston Red Sox won their first World Series in 2004 Simmons penned his first novel, “Now I Can Die in Peace.” Earlier this year he published his second book, “The Book of Basketball.” The book is billed as the definitive history of basketball and at close to 1,000 pages just might be.

Simmons can also be credited with as being an early adopter of the podcast as a medium. The Bill Simmons podcasts are among the web’s most popular, and he has gotten some huge names to chat with him. Over the years he has welcomed Best selling Author Macolm Gladwell (Outliers), NBA Commissioners David Stern, Mavs owner and rich guy Mark Cuban and most recently chatted with the Timberwolves Kevin Love. Simmons is also good friend with Late Night TV host Jimmy Kimmel as well as his former partner in crime Adam Corolla. In fact Simmons wrote on Jimmy Kimmel Live when the show first debuted.

Most recently Simmons has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, and the Bill Simmons Twitter Page claims no less than 473,767 followers. Often discounted as not a “true professional” Simmons’ unique style has made him one of the most widely read sports writers in the world and is a classic example of a person rising to the top of their professional while going against the establishment. While he will be missed by readers of ESPN the Magazine, fans will be able to continue to read his stuff at ESPN.com