On the field, they're quite the pair. Off the field, they're quite the pair.
By RICK STROUD, Times Staff Writer
Published December 4, 2005
[Times photo: Bill Serne]
Quarterback Chris Simms is the disheveled one and wide receiver Joey Galloway the meticulous one of the Bucs' dynamic duo.
The surprising thing isn't that Chris Simms and Joey Galloway are a great passing combination.
It's that they hook up all the time.
For dinner. Ballgames. Prize fights. Alone. With the missus.
Long before they started tossing deep balls, they were oddballs.
Simms, the 25-year-old quarterback and locker room chameleon who blends with any group; and Galloway, the 34-year-old, crusty receiver who can be aloof and a loner.
Simms' life is an open book, played out under the bright lights of New York as the son of a Super Bowl quarterback for the Giants.
Teammates don't know much about Galloway other than he is fast, sometimes disappearing after practice as quickly as he does in opposing secondaries.
Simms, with his mop of blond hair mussed as if he just woke from a nap, is Oscar to Galloway's Felix, as compulsively precise about his appearance as his routes.
But it didn't take long for them to find one another.
On Galloway's first day with the Bucs two years ago, the guy next to him in the last row of stretch line was Simms.
"There happened to be a young, blond quarterback in the back line," Galloway said. "We started talking from there."
What did they possibly share, besides the football?
"We're both sports junkies, so that's the No.1 thing," Simms said. "We just go eat somewhere, I'm sure we'll meet up and go watch the Monday night game at Jackson's down there, Chili's - anywhere. He brings his friend, I bring my wife and we just hang out and talk. He's a real easygoing guy. I think we're both competitors, and like I said, sports junkies."
In fact, Galloway is part owner of the Columbus Destroyers of the Arena Football League.
But his fanaticism goes beyond football. He is equally fluent in the language of major-league baseball, the NBA and boxing.
"Sports is really my interest," Galloway said. "Not just football. I like all sports. And so does he.
"He doesn't like people to know, but he's a Yankees fan. So we go to the Tampa Bay baseball games when the Yankees are in town and he secretly is rooting for the Yankees and I'm openly rooting for Tampa Bay. We can enjoy those kinds of things."
Lately, the duo has been dynamic on the field.
For the first time since he played with the Seattle Seahawks in '98, Galloway reached the 1,000-yard receiving milestone last weekend against the Bears, an accomplishment made more remarkable by the fact he went two games this season without a reception.
Early in his career, when Galloway produced three 1,000-yard performances in his first four years and missed that plateau by 13 yards in the other, he believed it would be an annual occurrence.
"Yeah, I did, actually," Galloway said. "And it didn't work out that way. This one feels pretty good. I feel good. I feel like I'm in my first couple years. I'm excited about it. I'm excited about this team and where we have a chance to go this year."
Much of Galloway's success came in the first six games, when Brian Griese quarterbacked the Bucs to a 5-1 start before a season-ending knee injury.
Since Simms took over as the starter, Galloway has caught 27 passes for 401 yards and three touchdowns, surpassing 130 yards receiving three times in five games.
"It's a little different just because Simms is a different player," Galloway said of his pairing with Simms. "But as far as the connection, it's still there.
"I am a little surprised at how well he's playing. He's a young guy. Now,we all expected him to play well, but I think he's made some very good decisions in some tough situations that you don't always see with a young guy."
According to Galloway, the more he can link up with Simms off the field, the better their connection will be on Sundays.
"I think it helps with communication," Galloway said. "I think it helps with trust. I think when I speak to him, when he speaks to me, and I'm telling him that I'm open, then I think because we spend time together, he knows that I'm just not talk."
Bucs coach Jon Gruden says scuttlebutt on Galloway is well-earned.
"He likes the mysterious loner image that he has," Gruden said. "But if you follow him around at night like I do, because I'm quite the security man as you know, he's got a lot of broad interests that are a little different than you might expect. He likes to raise fish. He's into a lot of plants and gardening. He's a strange bird. He's a strange man, indeed. He's a little bit aloof, to say the least. But he lends a lot to this team from my standpoint. He keeps it loose, he keeps it real."
And he keeps it real tight with Simms.
"I have said he's the odd one because he's the guy who can hang with everyone," Galloway said. "He'll tell me, "I went to eat with so and so.' I'll say, "Weirdo.'
"He's the oddball. I'm just a guy who happens to be his friend."
