Simms vs. Young vs. Simms

Phil Simms is angry. He is upset that Steve Young dared to question the "mental toughness" of his son, Chris Simms.

Some background: Phil Simms is a big-time football analyst at CBS, and was once a Super Bowl-winning QB with the NY Giants. Steve Young is a football commentator with ESPN, and was once a Super Bowl-winning QB with the San Francisco 49ers. And Chris Simms is the current starting QB of the 7-3 Tampa Bay Bucs.

Here is the story from the USA Today:

CBS sportscaster Phil Simms blasted ESPN's Steve Young on Monday as a football dilettante who shouldn't question the physical or mental toughness of his son Chris Simms, quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The war of words between the former Super Bowl MVPs erupted after Young, appearing on ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown, questioned whether Chris Simms had the "mental toughness" to handle the "information overload" of the NFL after growing up in a "laissez-faire" atmosphere."

"When you follow football one day a week it's hard to know much what is going on," Simms said about Young.

Usually in this sort of situation, there is a good guy and a bad guy. You know, someone must have stepped over the line, been intentionally antagonistic, etc.

But I just don't see that in this case. I don't think either of them is the bad guy.

Phil Simms is merely sticking up for his son. That's exactly what any decent father would do. Sure, he may have gone overboard a bit, and been a bit too defensive, but that just goes to show how emotionally-invested he is in his son's career. So, I lose no respect for Phil Simms.

And Steve Young was just doing his job. He's a football analyst for ESPN, after all. He's also a former QB. Of course he is going to offer his opinions, some of them critical, on the starting QBs of various NFL teams. His comments were simply his own informed opinion of a particular NFL quarterback.

Should he have bit his tongue, simply because papa Simms might get upset? Of course not! Football is a tough game, both physically and mentally. And lots of harsh criticism is thrown at the players when they don't put in a perfect performance. That's just part of the deal.

So. Neither Phil Simms nor Steve Young is the "bad guy" here. In fact, Mr. Young has already apologized about it:

"What I meant was the generational gap between guys my age and Phil's age and today's generation," explained Young, the former San Francisco 49ers star who entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year.

"It had absolutely no impact on how Phil raised his son. I'd let Phil raise my son. He can literally raise my two sons right now. I trust Phil implicitly."

The only important question (to me) is: Did Steve Young have a valid point?

In my opinion, yes.

Chris Simms has a 78.2 passer rating. (Not so good.) He has thrown 5 TDs, but also 5 INTs. His completion percentage is under 60%. And before he took over as starting QB, Tampa Bay was 5-1. That means they are only 2-2 with him as their field general.

And Steve Young is hardly the first, or only, person to criticize the younger Simms.

My opinion: Phil is just reacting the way any dad would. And Steve is just saying what any football commentator should. And Chris, if he starts playing a little bit better, can shut both of them the hell up...

Article Author: RJ Elliott

RJ is a graduate student at the University of Central Florida. His passions in life are sports, politics, nature, and women who have piercings they never told their daddy about. He dislikes daytime television, left-wing dictators, and people who talk like Garrison Keillor. …

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