Phil Simms

Simms was born in Springfield, Kentucky, on his grandfather's farm, a place now called Maple Hill Manor in Washington County, where he attended St. Dominic's Elementary. While in elementary school, his family moved to Louisville and he went to St. Rita Catholic grade school. Simms was the quarterback of the Trojans of Southern High School in Louisville and graduated in 1974. Simms chose to attend NCAA Division I FCS (formerly Division 1 AA) Morehead State of the Ohio Valley Conference in nearby Morehead. The Morehead State Eagles ran a ball-control offense, and Simms' numbers were unspectacular—in his senior season he completed 92 of 173 passes for a 53.2% completion percentage and had six touchdown passes, 11 interceptions, and 1,229 yards. The Ohio Valley moved up to the new Division I-AA in 1978, but the Eagles went 2–6–1; they failed to make the postseason during his college career. Simms finished with 409 completions in 835 attempts for a 48.9% completion percentage. He also totaled 32 touchdowns, 45 interceptions, and a school-record 5,545 yards. On September 4, 1995, Simms' jersey was retired in a halftime ceremony of a game versus the Dallas Cowboys. During an emotional speech, Simms stated that he wanted to don his jersey one final time, and throw "one more pass" to teammate Lawrence Taylor. Simms later commented, "[a]ll of a sudden it kind of hit me, I've put Lawrence in a really tough spot; national TV, he's got dress shoes and a sports jacket on, and he's had a few beers and he's going to run down the field and I'm going to throw him a pass." Simms then motioned for Taylor to run a longer pattern, and after 30–40 yards, threw him the pass. Taylor later stated that the situation made him more nervous than any play of his career, "I'm saying to myself (as the pass is being thrown), 'If I drop this pass, I got to run my black ass all the way to Upper Saddle River because there ain't no way I'm going to be able to stay in that stadium'." Taylor caught the pass however, and the capacity crowd in attendance cheered in approval. After his retirement as a player in 1994, Simms first joined ESPN then went on to join NBC's lead broadcast crew, teaming with Dick Enberg and Paul Maguire on NBC's coverage of Super Bowl XXX and Super Bowl XXXII. Simms also announced weightlifting at the 1996 Summer Olympics and served as a sideline reporter on the NBA on NBC for NBC Sports. In 1998, he moved to CBS with the AFC package, teaming first with Greg Gumbel (through the end of the 2003 season) and later with Jim Nantz on the CBS's lead broadcast team. He also worked with Armen Keteyian, Bonnie Bernstein, Lesley Visser, and Tracy Wolfson. Since 2009, he has been a host of Inside the NFL on Showtime (another CBS holding) with James Brown and Cris Collinsworth. In 2017, he was replaced by Tony Romo as a color commentator and joined the CBS pregame show The NFL Today. He left CBS after his contract expired at the end of the 2023 season. Simms has also worked on Westwood One as an analyst for select games in 2024. Simms joined WFAN's Boomer and Gio in 2024. Simms was part of the commentary team along with Nantz in the Madden NFL 13, 25, 15, and 16 video games. Outside of football broadcasting, Simms co-hosted the Miss Universe 2002 pageant with actress and model Daisy Fuentes. He made an appearance as himself on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 2007, and in February 2010 made an appearance on The Price Is Right (with Nantz) to present a Super Bowl XLIV showcase. In the same month, he appeared as himself (again with Nantz) on the How I Met Your Mother episode "Rabbit or Duck". On November 13, 2014, Simms appeared uncredited on the episode "Just a Regular Irregular" of the CBS television series Elementary. Simms' cameo was as a consultant to Sherlock Holmes in the art of knife throwing. Furthermore, Simms was forced to settle a debt with Holmes by loaning him a Super Bowl ring for the purpose of advancing the investigation.