Ghosts of the past

Simms' big-game failures a hot topic at Combine

INDIANAPOLIS -- It's Saturday morning and Chris Simms is bracing for the Oklahoma drill. You know the question. The why-can't-you-win-the-big-game query that has haunted him throughout his career at the University of Texas.

Simms won 26 of his 32 starts for the Longhorns and helped guide Texas to three consecutive bowl games. But it was his glaring 0-2 record against the powerful Sooners the past two years -- and 0-4 against Top 10 teams -- that seems to define his reputation.

And it's more than just the fans and media that return again and again to the well-worn topic. This week at the NFL Scouting Combine, several teams have thrown the same line of questioning at Simms, if only to see if they're hitting a nerve.

"They do ask," Simms said. "I think they want to see how I handle it, or at least what I think about the comments that are made. I pretty much say the same thing. I think the whole big-game thing is always focused on the Oklahoma game, and I can't say more than I had some bad plays here and they just beat us man to man.

"It is frustrating to hear that sometimes, because we did win some big games the past three years. But at the same time, it doesn't bother me because I'm confident in who I am and my ability as a player."

In truth, Simms' memory is a bit charitable when it comes to his big-game struggles. In his three career games (including two starts) against Oklahoma, Texas' biggest rival, Simms threw an embarrassing eight interceptions without a touchdown pass. Against Top 10 teams, Simms finished his collegiate career with 15 turnovers and nary a touchdown. Facing ranked teams, Simms was 4-5, with two of those wins coming in 2002.

As he enters the NFL draft process, that's the knock on Simms, the tall, blond, left-hander who interestingly enough was assigned No. 13 for these Combine workouts. And by now, it seems like he has been dealing with the questions surrounding his big-game track record almost as long as he has been in the spotlight for being the son of longtime New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms.

For the younger Simms, it's a lesson straight out of Quarterbacking 101. You take the good with the bad and move on, never trying to please everyone.

"I think the people that need to know, they know what they need to know about me, if that made sense," Simms said Saturday, a day before his scheduled workout. "I don't really [try to sell myself]. I try to be myself. If they're not going to like me for who I am, what I am, then they're just not going to like me. I like teams that like me."

If nothing else, Simms' experience at Texas -- where he was benched at times in favor of the popular Major Applewhite -- thickened his skin just in time for the NFL.

"I saw what my dad went through in New York and that toughened me up," Simms said, of his father's memorable benching in favor of Jeff Hostetler in 1991, the year after the Giants' second Super Bowl win. "Then experiencing it at Texas took me to another level and made me more mature. It made me realize what this game and this business is all about.

"I never felt like the criticism was real unfair. I was always comfortable with my career there. I felt like I played good and we won a lot of big games."

Despite the detractors, the 6-foot-4, 221-pound Simms has his share of fans at the combine. In a quarterback class that is considered the league's best since the Tim Couch, Donovan McNabb, Daunte Culpepper group of 1999, Simms is considered a possible first-round pick, and is anywhere from the fourth to the sixth highest-rated quarterback in the draft.

Teams like Arizona, Carolina, Chicago, Dallas and Pittsburgh interviewed him Friday night and more teams were set to chat him up Saturday.

"He's won a lot of games," said Bears general manager Jerry Angelo, whose team is one of the more obvious quarterback-needy franchises. "I think that you don't want to get too carried away on those couple games that he didn't win. I think he's got exceptional intangibles.

"We had a chance to visit with him and spend some time with him down in Mobile [at the Senior Bowl]. I was very impressed obviously with his arm strength and with his size. And when you meet him, you don't like people if you don't like him."

Though his critics point to his shaky decision-making at times -- like the seven interceptions he threw in the Longhorns' two most recent losses to Oklahoma -- Simms' philosophy is simple, that the more teams watch him, the more he believes they'll see him for what he is: A big, productive, poised, strong-armed quarterback who already has a wealth of experience under his belt.

While it's routine for most of the elite quarterbacks to pass on either throwing or running the 40-yard dash at the combine, Simms said he'll do everything asked of him on Sunday in addition to holding a personal workout March 18 near his family's home in New Jersey.

"I feel like I came here to show what I've got," said Simms, with a smile that never wavered during a 25-minute media session. "This is the big stage, so I might as well as just do it."

Revealing no specifics, Simms said he has gut feeling that there are three or four teams seriously considering him high in April's draft.

"I don't think I have to do anything outrageous [to go in the first round]," he said. "Just really be myself, and I think it will all take care of itself. But at the same time, you just never really know. You want to know what they're thinking about you, but it's like the CIA. They're close-guarded. They don't really like to show their cards.

"That's why you come here and work out. That's why I went to the Senior Bowl. At least I know I did everything in my power to show them what I've got."

The most intriguing possibilities? How about if Simms ends up being taken by his dad's Giants, or even those Bill Parcells-led Cowboys? Simms said he has met with New York and found the experience of taking the Giants' well-documented psychological tests somewhat amusing.

"I kind of bust their chops a lot because they give you these tests, and I'm like, 'What don't you know about the Simms' family?'" he said. Answering the question of whether he has relatives who have played in the NFL, Simms said he filled in, "QB, NYG," later adding, when prompted, that his father was now a "CBS broadcaster."

Of playing for Parcells, his dad's former coach, Simms said: "It's definitely a tempting idea. It's something I would love to do, I can't lie to you. I've always kind of been a big Cowboys fan, which is a dream itself. And of course I'm a big fan of coach Parcells."

Well, at least now he is. "When I was younger, I was scared of him," Simms admitted. "I know my dad was scared of him."

What remains to be seen is how many NFL teams will be scared off by Simms' uneven collegiate career. At Texas, his many victories were consistently overshadowed by his big-game losses. How much longer that perception lingers will help determine just how many big games will be in Simms' NFL future.

Don Banks covers pro football for SI.com.

 

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