Football fans were outraged by Chris Simms’ seeming lack of compassion following the death of “TuAnon” founder Eric Carmona, who frequently took the NBC Sports analyst to task for his strong opinions on Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
“It’s a horrible thing, a horrible accident,” Simms said at the time, commending Tagovailoa for donating $10,000 to a GoFundMe made in support of Carmona’s family. “We’re also setting an example like, ‘Hey here’s money to a guy who was very negative too.’ That’s all I’m saying.”
Here is the full context of Simms’ comments, and it’s not better.
He starts by saying it’s a nice gesture and a horrible thing, but then immediately goes into “he trolled me a lot.” Florio then goes into saying it’s better to be trolled than ignored because people are… https://t.co/N3VIWtZB3U pic.twitter.com/AB3UrH8GzU
— King of Phinland🐬👑 (@KingOfPhinland) June 8, 2023
Simms finally addressed the controversy during his weekly appearance on Meadowlark Media’s God Bless Football podcast with Billy Gil and Jon “Stugotz” Weiner, expressing his remorse for a regrettable lapse in judgment.
“I’m disappointed in myself. You guys know me. I don’t try to be a bad guy. I know I got a big mouth and opinions about football,” said Simms, who wouldn’t let go of the fact Carmona trolled him on Twitter, even as his PFT Live colleague Mike Florio tried to give him an off-ramp. “I dropped the ball. I was insensitive. I didn’t need to go that route. I let a bigger conversation take ahold of me for a second and it was the wrong time to bring it up. I meant no disrespect to Tua or the Carmona family at all, but that was totally bad timing and insensitive by me. I got no excuse. I’m sorry. That’s all I can say.”
A former quarterback himself, Simms has been a vocal critic of Tagovailoa, questioning his arm strength and consistency while routinely ranking him among the league’s worst starters. That’s led to hostility from Dolphins fans, with Carmona at the forefront of that movement. Clearly Simms has unresolved issues regarding that dynamic, though days after Carmona’s fatal motorcycle crash wasn’t the time or place to voice that sentiment.
“A lot of people down here, obviously, were hurt. It was not the time to say it,” said Gil. “Bigger picture, you have a wife that lost a husband. You have four kids that are growing up without a father. It just struck a lot of people the wrong way.”
It didn’t take long for Simms to realize what he’d done, regretting his comments almost as soon as they came out of his mouth.
“That was just totally f—ing stupid by me and I’m sorry. I messed up,” said Simms. “As soon as I got done saying it, I went, ‘Damn, that’s stupid.’ You can ask the people that work on the show with me. I was literally going, ‘I’m sorry.’ Because I knew that’s not going to look good on me at all.”
For what it’s worth, Tagovailoa was No. 21 in Simms’ annual quarterback rankings, eight spots higher than he placed a year ago.
