Yet Mr. Simmons’s web-bred feral side often broke glass inside ESPN, which blanched at some of his stunts — a porn star in his fantasy basketball league? — and twice banned him from using Twitter after he wrote posts criticizing colleagues.

Things started falling apart after Mr. Simmons called Mr. Goodell “a liar” for saying the league had not known what was contained in a damning video of Mr. Rice punching his fiancée unconscious when it initially handed Mr. Rice a light, two-game suspension. (The tape had been leaked to TMZ.) Mr. Simmons followed that by daring ESPN to “Call me and say I’m in trouble.” His three-week suspension followed.

Mr. Simmons says he now regrets the dare. But, he said, he was just fulfilling his role as a “disrupter,” if an imperfect one. That was what he planned to tell Disney’s chief executive, Robert A. Iger — a proponent of disruption — when he went to Mr. Iger’s office several months after his suspension.

Mr. Simmons did not get to make his point. “He was like, ‘You know, when you go after Roger, it’s really hard for us; we want you to do it respectfully,’” Mr. Simmons said of Mr. Iger’s counsel. “And I was like, ‘I think that’s fair. I can be relentless on him but I’ve got to do it respectfully.”’

“Respectfully” is not what came to mind when, a few weeks later, Mr. Simmons questioned Mr. Goodell’s “testicular fortitude” in his handling of Deflategate. The next day, ESPN’s president, John Skipper, announced that Mr. Simmons’ contract would not be renewed.

Mr. Simmons says he wonders if something else was at play. A few months after his ouster, Mr. Iger emerged as a champion of a proposed new stadium near Los Angeles that would have been shared by the San Diego Chargers and a relocated Oakland Raiders team — with an option to buy a stake in either team. “One of my working theories was, maybe this was driven by Iger because he wants a team.”

Disney declined to comment. But when I reached out to ESPN for a response, Mr. Skipper sent me this:

“Bill would rather spin conspiracy theories and be perceived as a martyr than take responsibility for his own actions. Let me be unequivocal and clear and take responsibility for my actions: I alone made the decision, and it had nothing to do with his comments about the commissioner. I severed our relationship with Bill because of his repeated lack of respect for this company and, more importantly, the people who work here.”