Media Circus: Phil Simms is enjoying his second act, has no hard feelings toward Tony Romo

There are second acts in sports broadcasting — hell, there are 15th acts in sports broadcasting — and Phil Simms is living proof. Two years ago, in a very public manner, Simms was replaced by Tony Romo as the lead NFL analyst for CBS Sports. You know what happened next: Romo became a revelation in the booth and the “manageable risk” that CBS Sports execs said of putting Romo on the No. 1 NFL team with no broadcasting experience turned into one of the great sports broadcasting hires in history.

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Simms did not disappear from CBS Sports. There are some broadcast talents who would have gone scorched earth after being replaced by a younger model, but Simms wanted to stay in the business and embraced his switch to the studio. (He, no doubt, also wanted to keep collecting a nice check.) Two years later, he is a mainstay on “The NFL Today” and a blueprint for older on-air talent embracing the new.

“I love it,” Simms said this week. “I don’t think there is any other way to say it. I went into it wondering will I like this as much as doing games? I do miss going and seeing players, talking to them, watching them practice, and truly getting inside information. I had a connection with so many guys in the NFL, especially coaches, and I miss that. But I am enjoying this more than I thought I would.”

I spoke to Simms on April 19, 2017 when I worked at Sports Illustrated and read back to him what he told me after CBS named Romo as the lead game analyst and moved Simms to “The NFL Today.” Here is what he said:

“Listen, I didn’t make any comments for a lot of reasons and you want to sit there and think about it. Initially was my pride hurt? Absolutely. Of course it was…So it took a little bit. Not long. I started thinking about it in a positive way and then I became excited about it. (CBS Sports Chairman) Sean (McManus) had talked to me over the years about maybe going into the studio. I now get to follow the league like I want to. That was probably the most frustrating thing about my job. You do one or two games a week, you can’t really pay attention to the other teams like I wanted to do.”

More than two years later, as we spoke last week, I asked him to reflect on those comments.

“One, it never occurred to me to get out of football,” Simms said. “I don’t know how long I will stay in it – football, CBS, whatever – but as long as they will have me. I will never leave on my own accord. I know that. It is just like playing. Everything you read back to me I remember word for word and it has been so much fun now following the league.”

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The last couple of years of Simms’ tenure as his network’s NFL lead analyst were ugly. He often trended on Twitter during the Sundays he broadcast games and not for positive reasons. There were petitions from fan bases asking him not to broadcast their games. His bosses, at the time, dismissed it as a function of the hellscape of social media.

“I think social media represents a minority opinion out there and it is almost wholeheartedly negative,” CBS President Sean McManus told me in 2017. “This is a very subjective business. Everyone has their opinions, and the Twitter opinions are generally negative. Phil is someone with strong opinions, he’s not shy about expressing those opinions, and whenever you are that expressive with your opinions, you will get a lot of criticism.”

It is, of course, a subjective take, but I thought Simms’s level had dropped as an analyst over his last couple of years. It was a smart time to change things up. Given that I consider Romo the best NFL analyst in history (yes, I think he is better than John Madden), you know where I stand on the switch.

Simms has been very effective on “The NFL Today” and Showtime’s “Inside The NFL.” It’s not that he’s always correct (he predicted Antonio Brown would be a big hit in New England and dropped an F. Lee Bailey reference this week, the once-famous celebrity lawyer now barred from practicing law in several states) but the opportunity for opinion-making and analysis suits him. He has very nice chemistry with his on-air mates and is refreshingly willing to mock himself as he did when he showed a workout video he made in the 1980s. His words are not nearly as scrutinized as they were as a top game analyst. The new job is also better for his body. After he returned from Jacksonville last week to interview Gardner Minshaw for a Tyler Jahn-produced feature that ran on “The NFL Today” yesterday, he told his wife Diana: “Oh, my God, I do not miss traveling.”

“When Phil joined ‘The NFL Today’ I knew he was going to click right away with James Brown and Boomer Esiason from their time together each week on ‘Inside the NFL,’ but seeing his relationship with Bill Cowher develop has been fun to watch,” said Drew Kaliski, the lead producer of “The NFL Today.” “There was an instant respect between a Super Bowl-winning head coach and a Super Bowl-winning quarterback. They are always talking strategy and asking each other football questions, which has made them better on the air. Phil has fully embraced being a part of ‘The NFL Today’ team. He is having fun and thriving in the studio. I also think Phil being an analyst on ‘Inside the NFL’ made the transition from the booth to ‘The NFL Today’ very easy. Phil understood the mechanics of doing a fast-paced studio show and there was no learning curve there.”

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Simms said his first year on “The NFL Today” did have its challenges and frustration because of the time restrictions given four other staffers on set. He had to learn how to pare his thoughts down considerably.

“I remember one year as a game analyst we had the Raiders nine times,” Simms said. “We had years when we had the Patriots, counting playoffs, seven or eight or nine times. The carryover there was tremendous and those weeks I did my work and also had time to catch up on other teams. The preparation for me now is longer, more fun, and I am also home more so if I want to be at my house all day watching games and taking notes I can.”

Simms shows no public bitterness toward Romo. “Our relationship is fun,” Simms said. “I don’t get like, “OH, THERE’S TONY…. We always see each other at the CBS NFL seminar and run into each other here and there in the offseason and it is always good and we have laughs. I hold no animosity over it all. It is fine.”

Simms has multiple years left on his CBS deal. He said he would love to call one more game before he leaves broadcasting, whenever that day comes.

“Maybe when I know my time is up and my contract ends, I would ask if I can do one game,” Simms said. “Boomer Esiason and I always talked about doing a game together before we get out of this business. It would be fun and I guarantee you that would sound a little like Paul Maguire and me when we worked at NBC. Paul would say something and I would say, ‘You know Paul, I don’t mean to disagree with you but it is just not right what you are saying.’ When I know it is coming to an end on TV, I really would like to do one more game. And I don’t care if it is two losing teams and the game is going to three percent of America. It would be fun to do one more.”

Simms turns 64 on November 3. Whether you like his on-air work or not, what does not fall under subjective is how successful he has been as a sports broadcaster. He worked with NBC and ESPN immediately after his retirement as a player — few remember he called weightlifting at the 1996 Olympics and even served as an NBA sideline reporter for NBC — before moving to CBS in 1998. At CBS, he first teamed with Greg Gumbel and later Jim Nantz on the network’s No. 1 NFL team. He has called eight Super Bowls over two networks. I asked him what advice he would give today to a 30-something quarterback who wants to transition from playing to broadcasting.

“First and foremost, I don’t think you can really do it and do it well unless you truly love it,” Simms said. “You have to love football to do this. I know people get into sports broadcasting because they want to keep their name out there and this and that and it shows. I see stuff and say, ‘Well that was just awful what was just said there.’ If you love the game, you will make the transition because you always have something to say and maybe have something a little unique. If you are 38 or 39, that tells me you have loved the game because it tells me you worked hard and hung around. You have to love playing and love talking about it. I don’t think you can fake it. Sooner or later the vast audience will know. Your knowledge is at its greatest when you get out of the game. That lasts for about five years. Then it becomes work because everything keeps changing.”

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The Ink Report

1. Some media notes from NFL Week 5:

• The NFL has a very good story to tell at the quarter mark of the regular season. Per Austin Karp of Sports Business Daily, NFL games are averaging 16.3 million viewers on TV across all nets, up 4 percent from 15.7 million at the same point last season, and up 5 percent from two years ago. With Karp’s permission here’s his chart which illustrates the recent ratings:
• The Cowboys-Packers game on Fox that aired in the 4:25 p.m. ET window went to 100 percent of the households in America. Per the terrific 506sports.com site, the last time a Sunday afternoon game had 100 percent coverage was 2001.
• “The NFL Today’s” Esiason, voicing a first-quarter highlight update of Steelers wide receiver Juju Schuster’s 35-yard touchdown catch, had some fun with Simms: “Greg (Gumbel), you have not seen a stiff arm until you have seen Phil (Simms) at the buffet at lunch here. Back to you.” Said Gumbel: “It may be a week, it may be two weeks, but Phil will get back at you.”
• Here’s “Fox NFL Sunday” analyst Terry Bradshaw taking a crack at Michigan Football on Sunday:

Damn! Even Terry Bradshaw throwing shade at @UMichFootball on this NFL Sunday. 🤦🏻‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/xYINT43Scn

— Tom Schulte (@golfnutt14) October 6, 2019

• The MLB postseason changed up one Fox NFL announcing team this week: Sam Rosen replaced Kevin Burkhardt this week on the call of the Giants-Vikings game.

2. Professional wrestling on television had a monster week:

• The debut of “WWE Smackdown” on Fox averaged 3.888 million total viewers and a very big 1.4 rating among the 18-49 demographic on Friday night. That was well up from the 2.066 million viewers “Smackdown” averaged on USA Network on Tuesdays. The viewership number was not unexpected given the promotion for the debut and the pay-per-view level in-ring talent, including the return of The Rock. (The show peaked during his segment at 4.217 million viewers on Fox.) The most interesting questions will be answered months from now when we will learn how much impact the move to Fox had (or did not have) on the product. But Fox should be very happy with the debut.
• Last Wednesday’s debut of “AEW Dynamite” on TNT averaged 1.409 million viewers, topping WWE’s NXT on USA, which drew 891,000 viewers. That’s a great number for AEW, which is attempting to find runway against the mighty WWE. “AEW Dynamite” averaged a 0.68 rating in adults 18-49 compared to a 0.32 rating for NXT. For a non-wrestling comparison, the MLB Wild Card game between Tampa Bay and Oakland on ESPN that night drew a 1.03 rating in adults 18-49.
• The longtime WWE flagship show “Raw” averaged 2.570 million total viewers last Monday on USA Network.

2a. MLB Network’s telecast of 2019 ALDS Game 1 between the Yankees and Twins drew 3.4 million viewers, the network’s second-most-watched telecast in its history. The 2016 NLDS Game 2 between the Giants and Cubs is MLB Net’s most-watched game (4.6 million viewers).

2b. Through the first five full regular season Saturdays, “College GameDay” has averaged 1,931,000 viewers, up 7 percent year-over-year.

3. Episode 71 of the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch features two segments. The first guest is Adnan Virk, the host of DAZN’s “ChangeUp” MLB whip-around show, the network’s boxing coverage, as well as a host at MLB Network and NHL Network. The second segment features Ivan Maisel and John Dahl. Maisel has covered college football for ESPN since 2002, writing as a senior writer for ESPN.com and appearing on television and ESPN Radio and on podcasts. Dahl is an ESPN vice president of special projects and original content.

In this podcast, Virk discusses his many appearances on this podcast; the over-punishment for him from ESPN; the differences in working at DAZN vs. ESPN; working for an incumbent as opposed to the big dog; his many name-drops per podcast appearances; whether DAZN will get involved in football; the challenges of starting up a new podcast; his many assignments; whether he misses the scale of the ESPN audience; the allure of Ryen Russillo and how ESPN blew it with him, and much more.

Maisel and Dahl discuss ESPN’s programming rollout for College Football’s 150th anniversary season; the resources the company put toward this; the documentary-style program including “The American Game,” an 11-episode documentary series that focuses on college football’s growth in the American landscape; integration in college football; the company’s upcoming selection of college football’s greatest players and games; and much more.

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and more.

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4. Sports pieces of note:

• Jeff Hatch Was Dealing Fentanyl. And Helping Addicts. Then a Planned Visit from the VP Blew It All Up.
• In Kladno, Jaromir Jagr, the player, can’t let down Jaromir Jagr, the owner. Via Mark Lazerus of The Athletic.
• Can the NBA find a basketball superstar in India? By Reid Forgrave, for New York Times Magazine.
• Five Dimes. By David Hill, for Victory Journal.
• The Athletic’s Rustin Dodd on sitting in the right field at Yankee Stadium.
• The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis, a trio of Deadspin writers,the Boston Globe’s Chad Finn and Jacob Bogage and Ben Strauss of The Washington Post on The Maven’s destruction of Sports Illustrated.

Non-sports pieces:

• By Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post: A terrible crime, a patient waiting for a transplant: The tragic, redemptive journey of one heart.
• “You’ve most likely never heard of me. I’m not an actress. I don’t even work in Hollywood anymore. I was one of many ordinary, unfamous women trying to do their jobs who were abused by Harvey.” By Rowena Chiu.
• Bootleg film shows Florida prison in all its danger, squalor. An inmate shot it on the sly. By Romy Ellenbogen of the Miami Herald. 
• The long, loving search for Betsy, bovine escape artist. By Clio Chang, for California Sunday.
• By May Jeong of Vanity Fair: The raids on Orchids and other massage parlors in South Florida were conducted in the name of rescuing women from sex trafficking. But the only people put in jail were the women themselves.
• The ocean floor is the Earth’s last great uncharted region. Oliver Franklin-Wallis joins the man descending to the bottom of the deepest trenches on the planet. Via 1843 Magazine.
• Am I Writing About My Life, Or Selling Myself Out? From Buzzfeed’s Shannon Keating.
• A Photographer at the Ends of the Earth. By Dana Goodyear of The New Yorker.
• By Anton Troianovski of The Washington Post On climate change in Siberia, with Chris Mooney and M. Robinson Chavez.
• Via Geoff Edgers of The Washington Post: Steve Miller cracked the code of 1970s radio. But he’s still raging against the music industry.
• America’s First Banned Book Is for Sale for $35,000.
• Via The New York Review of Books: The highest suicide rate in the world.
• By Xan Rice of Guardian: The girl in the box: the mysterious crime that shocked Germany.
• Via Brian M. Rosenthal and Alyssa Schukar of the New York Times: The story of how a handful of New York businessmen used Chicago taxi permits to make hundreds of millions of dollars — and helped ruin hundreds of immigrant drivers.

5. “College GameDay” will make history next August as the show will air from Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020 for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic between Notre Dame and Navy at Aviva Stadium. CGD has never aired from outside the U.S. The show is expected to begin at 11 a.m. ET. The game kicks off at 2 p.m. ET.

5a. My next Sports Media Podcast will focus on what happened at Sports Illustrated last week. I hope you will check it out.

5b. It’s been a gutting time for WGR-AM (Buffalo) sports-talk host Jeremy White and his wife Molly, who lost their quadruplets last month. To support Molly ‘s fundraising campaign to raise funds for Western New York Perinatal Bereavement Network, Inc, here is a link.

(Top photo: Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images)

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