RIP Grantland VIVA The Ringer! VIVA Bill Simmons! VIVA HBO! 

I post my thoughts every week on GoT.

You can read my weekly thoughts on Game Of Thrones Season 6 Episodes by clicking  HERE (including my full explanation of the full Hodor story)

Look, I am a music guy, a punk music guy, but I am also a Game of Thrones Fan (a serious Game of Thrones fan). I love the books and the series. 

I have not looked at ESPN with the same love since the awful decision to let Bill Simmons go. I have been furious with ESPN ever since they killed Grantland (a site I read EVERY day for years). And I was boiling over contemplating the new season without being able to read and hear Andy Greenwald and the Maester.

I may serve a much smaller community, but Grantland's coverage of Game of Thrones was so much of an influence on me that in many ways inspired me to start doing recaps of television shows (I currently recap Vinyl (HBO) and Mr. Robot (USA).

Over the last year, I have written Bill Simmons on Twitter many times trying to get information on if he would be trying to bring his Game Of Thrones Team back together again before the start of the new season (of course he did not respond...but, I tried).

So, you can imagine how excited I was to see this NEWS (Click)

Yup, Bill Simmons is putting the Grantland #GOT band back together again and HBO is helping out!

Will "The Maester" Join the Cast?

The news stories that I have seen mention only that the show will be hosted by Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan.

Andy Greenwald's work on #GOT was great but what really set Grantland's coverage apart IMHO was the "Ask the Maester" column and since the actual Maester aka Jason Concepcion (@netw3rk) is working for Simmons new property The Ringer that he will be on the show. 

If you are unfamiliar with his work, he understands the world of Westeros better than anyone else I have ever read. HERE (click) is a link to all of his "Ask The Maester" columns.

I have read all of the books three times (yes, including Dunk and Egg and the coffee table book) and The Maester astounds and surprised me with every column. The dude KNOWS the #GOT universe.

UPDATE - Mallory Rubin and Jason are both back on the team (Mallory was Mother of Dragons on Grantland - the BAND IS BACK together).

Click HERE for a link to the Ringer's version of the new shows page (also sign up for the newsletter - The Ringer is the new newsletter version of Grantland).

Click HERE for HBO's page for the new show.

No matter who is involved, this will IMHO be the best coverage of #GOT that you will find.

Here is the video version of the annoucement podcast including Concepcion - I am listening now, I suspect this will answer my question.

Thank you Bill Simmons!

And I hope you show ESPN the errors of their ways!

Are you excited about the return of Bill Simmons GOT team? Do you want Jason Concepcion to return as well? Share your opinion about this or about the death of Grantland and the coming of The Ringer, leave a comment!