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Simms gets to his feet every time
By GARY SHELTON
Published September 24, 2006
TAMPA — If you remember nothing else about this game, about this season, then remember this. The hour was growing late, and the game had driven Chris Simms to his knees.
It was a strange time for a quarterback to walk away from his huddle. Remember that, too. It was second down, late in the third quarter, and the Bucs were two points behind.
Perhaps that should have been enough of a signal to suggest to the Bucs, and to the rest of us, that the situation was dire. Simms, tough kid that he is, stepped away from his teammates and moved unsteadily toward the sideline, motioning for someone else to come into the game.
Remember that Simms slumped to a knee and then to both. Remember that he pitched forward on the turf, his face buried into the ground. Remember his teammates moving toward him.
Then remember that somehow, amazingly, Simms stood up.
While you are at it, perhaps you want to remember that Simms darned near convinced his teammates to do the same.
In a season that is rapidly turning forgettable, it is worth holding onto that image of Sunday’s game. Despite the pain and the pressure, despite being battered and booed, the kid fought the good fight. Really, what more can you ask?
They hauled Simms away in an ambulance Sunday evening. Shortly after the Bucs’ 26-24 loss to Carolina, they rushed him to a hospital to have a ruptured spleen removed. For a while, his mother said, he was in critical condition. (Later, he was upgraded to stable.) At this point, it is unclear if the Bucs will see him again this season.
Tough kid, Simms. Turns out, he may be tougher than anyone has given him credit for being.
At first glance, Simms is one of those kids whose face will always look 10 years younger than it is. There is still a teenager’s bounce to his gait, and his narrow shoulders suggest there might be some frailty there. But there isn’t. For a guy to stand up to the Panthers defense while bleeding internally will put that to rest.
Also, it may put things into perspective on a dismal afternoon. By comparison, an 0-3 start doesn’t seem like such misery, does it? The Bucs can’t run, and it doesn’t seem to matter. The Bucs can’t make a big stop, and so what? All you will remember is they lost one more time.
That, and this:
The kid almost pulled it off, didn’t he?
Simms entered Sunday’s game with the NFL’s most tenuous hold on his position. If he wasn’t looking over his shoulder after his first two weeks, he should have been. Bucs coach Jon Gruden has spent the early portion of the season enraged over Simms’ play, and over the past week, several veterans were asked by coaches what the effect would be if the team changed quarterbacks.
During the first quarter of Sunday’s game, it would have been hard to blame Gruden. Simms was awful.
His first pass was intercepted, and he finished the quarter hitting only one of his six passes. His quarterback rating was zero. Repeat: Zero.
He looked gun-shy, skittish. On his fifth pass of the day, he held onto the ball too long, and he was hit hard by Panthers tackle Kris Jenkins. Afterward, he told teammates he was having trouble breathing.
By the time it was 17-0, it was easy to wonder if Simms was down to his last series. Every eye in the place was watching to see if Bruce Gradkowski was going to warm up.
Instead, Simms began to play better. He made a nice touch pass to Joey Galloway for a touchdown. He ran in from the 2 for another. He was hit hard again as he scored, and after the Bucs stopped the Panthers, he fell to his knees on second down.
Simms went to the locker room, supposedly to get an IV for cramps. He missed only two offensive plays before the Bucs sent him back into the game.
This time, Simms moved his team 51 yards for a 24-23 lead. Perhaps it could have been more, but on a second-down incompletion, Simms was driven hard into the ground by Al Wallace.
He was obviously in pain when he got up, perhaps the reason that Gruden chose to run on third down rather than throw for a touchdown and a bigger lead.Simms threw only one more pass, an incompletion, the rest of the game.
Yeah, the Bucs lost. And no, it doesn’t help that they showed a flicker of energy for the first time this season. In the old days, Gruden doesn’t laugh about Keyshawn and John Kasay and George Bush in the postgame news conference. For a team that still has expectations, this was the kind of loss that leads to furniture-throwing. It is only when a team knows its fate that it attempts to lose itself in whatever positives it can pick up off the floor.
For the Bucs, however, for perhaps the last time this season, there was Simms. Isn’t there something to be said for playing hurt? Isn’t there something to be said for getting off the mat? After having a rating of zero for the first quarter, Simms had a rating of 111.9 in the second, 88.2 in the third and 106.7 in the fourth.
In other words, the Bucs found out something about their quarterback on Sunday. Despite a ruptured spleen, despite the pressure of the situation, despite the problems of his huddle, there is something there to hang onto.
Remember that. Before the season went dark, there was a brief flash of light.
Everything else, including the season, you can forget.
[Last modified September 25, 2006, 00:03:53]
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