Even Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri wants to see Phil Simms get whacked from CBS. Credit: Getty Images
Phil Simms was once regarded as the “next John Madden.” After retiring from the NFL in 1994, Simms quickly moved up the ranks of the football announcing world, taking a pit stop at ESPN before becoming the lead analyst for NBC. Simms called Super Bowl XXX a little over a year after announcing his retirement from the Giants.
Simms was a prodigy, offering up “real analysis and real opinion” during a time when people were starting to tire of Madden a bit. Take a look at Simms from 1997 – coming right out of the shoot by saying that, in his opinion, “John Elway, physically, is the most dynamic quarterback ever to play in the National Football League.” You’ll have to jump to the 2:44 mark for Simms (but treat yourself to the most underrated football theme song of all-time beginning at 0:54 in the meantime):
Today, Simms is seemingly mailing it in. He is the most criticized sports announcer this side of Joe Buck, so much so that there is a popular Twitter feed with 14,000 followers called @PhilSimmsQuotes that shreds just about everything that comes out of his mouth. Some gems from this past week (remember, CBS treats us to TWO Simms games a week now with Thursday Night Football):
“it’s not… It’s not even… It’s not close. That’s what I was trying to say. My gosh.” #KCvsDEN
— Phil Simms Quotes (@philsimmsquotes) September 14, 2014
“On the coverage… look at those… Aqib Talib. #KCvsDEN
— Phil Simms Quotes (@philsimmsquotes) September 14, 2014
“if you call in the play to Ben tell him to hand it off, pass it, whatever.” #PITvsBAL
— Phil Simms Quotes (@philsimmsquotes) September 12, 2014
“Jim, I was gonna say, Ray Rice’s status is somewhat down.” #PITvsBAL
— Phil Simms Quotes (@philsimmsquotes) September 12, 2014
“Ray Rice was beat up last year” – Oooookay #PITvsBAL
— Phil Simms Quotes (@philsimmsquotes) September 12, 2014
“Man… that is a beautiful bird.” #PITvsBAL
— Phil Simms Quotes (@philsimmsquotes) September 12, 2014
Broncos fans, in particular, have seen the decline of Simms up close and personal. Simms has been doing AFC games exclusively for nearly 20 years now and the Broncos have continually had marquee games in which Simms and the No. 1 NBC or CBS crew gets the game.
Well now, Denver fans are fed up. This week they created an online petition that read:
The petition had reached 17,500 signatures as of this Monday night.
Follow Metro Boston sports editor and columnist Matt Burke on Twitter: @BurkeMetroBOS
