Phil Simms didn’t know his tenure with The NFL Today was going to end after the Super Bowl, but the long silence from CBS began to suggest the network’s new direction.
Last week, CBS announced Simms and Boomer Esiason were being replaced on The NFL Today with Matt Ryan. The decision came after the former quarterbacks spent more than two decades each with CBS.
Simms appeared on the latest episode of Front Office Sports Today with host Owen Poindexter. During the podcast interview, Simms implied he started to realize CBS was going to make a change, even if those plans weren’t articulated to him directly.
“It wasn’t a great surprise,” Simms said of the change. “I knew there was probably going to be some change or thought there would be. So, I think that makes it a little easier. Would I have liked to keep the job? Of course. I mean, damn. I didn’t like it, I loved it. Get to talk football and hang around and maybe when we go to commercial, you get to really say what you want to the guys that you’re working with. But it was a fun job, great job, and you just move on to something else now.”
“Nobody asked me, talked to me or anything like that,” Simms continued regarding his status with CBS after 26 years. “I waited over a couple months to see what CBS was doing, and I think the longer you wait, the more you know it’s not gonna work out in your favor.”
Esiason similarly noted the decision to part ways with The NFL Today on CBS was “more their decision than maybe mine.” Both former quarterbacks were coming off expiring contracts, and at least in Simms’ case, it doesn’t sound like CBS worked to negotiate an extension in recent months. While Esiason departed The NFL Today, he signed an extension to continue his No. 1 rated morning radio show on WFAN, which is also simulcast on CBS Sports Network. Simms, meanwhile, will focus on his Simms Complete podcast with son Matt Simms, which they launched last year.
“It’s more freedom,” Simms said comparing podcasting to live TV. “We can kibbitz for five straight minutes and not say anything worthwhile about NFL football or sports. The freedom is uplifting, makes you feel great, and you can just really elaborate on thinks like you could never do on TV, except maybe if you work for TNT when they got 30 minutes just free, no commercials…give me 30 minutes with somebody for no commercials. I’ll light it up too…do you think I would ever run out of barbs for Boomer Esiason?”
If TNT is looking for an NFL show, as they decide on the future of their NBA deal and subsequently Inside the NBA, it sounds like Simms is willing to offer his services.
