HBO is giving Simmons a production deal to make video podcasts and other features and to produce documentaries for HBO Sports, and that ability to make documentaries is a neat twist on his recent career and the rivalry between ESPN and HBO. When “30 for 30” began in 2009, Simmons came out mouth loud and guns blazing toward HBO, which was then the undisputed leader in making sports documentaries

“I want nothing more than to destroy them,” Simmons said, a stance that sounded hyperbolic but that, in the years afterward, began to sound like a successful prophecy. HBO shut down its in-house documentary unit in 2011 and sought to fill its schedule with films from outside producers, with mixed results. Now, with Simmons, HBO might have found the key to reviving its stature in the documentary field, if perhaps not with the annual output of “30 for 30.”

The post-ESPN era for Simmons would seem empty without a column, which is what brought him to prominence in Boston and would appear, along with his podcasts, to be central to his widespread appeal. The new deal will let Simmons take his column to another media outlet, and there was no clarity Wednesday about whether HBO or another part of Time Warner would build a new Grantland-type website for him.

The column will almost certainly be revived somewhere, sometime soon. But what of a post-Grantland Grantland? With ESPN holding on to the original, would HBO, or any another media company, need to build a new one? Is such replication necessary unless every important Grantland writer and editor eventually defects into Simmons’s post-ESPN embrace?

For now, the Simmons-HBO deal shows signs of being a love match. The network clearly loves having bought part of the Simmons brand. In the news release heralding the agreement, Simmons said, “It’s no secret that HBO is the single best place for creative people in the entire media landscape.” And Michael Lombardo, the president of HBO Programming, said that the network “could not be more thrilled” to bring his talents to HBO and for him “to become a signature voice at the network.”

It is quite likely that they will stay enamored of each other. At HBO, almost anything goes, and for someone who likes to pop off, Simmons could not have found a more welcoming place to say what he pleases about anyone in the sports world. Consider how much Maher gets away with on his series, “Real Time,” and you can appreciate the very wide berth Simmons is receiving.