With his championship pedigree as a player and a lengthy career as a top broadcaster, there are few individuals that can match the NFL resume of Phil Simms. But the former New York Giants Super Bowl winner is pessimistic that it is enough to earn induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
As a player, Simms most notably was a part of two Giants Super Bowl winning teams. He put together what is arguably the most efficient game in Super Bowl history winning the MVP of Super Bowl XXI in 1987. Simms was 22-25 for 268 yards and 3 TDs and his 150.9 passer rating is still a Super Bowl record. He won another ring with the Giants in Super Bowl XXV even though he was injured and backup quarterback Jeff Hostetler piloted New York to victory thanks to Scott Norwood’s famous miss.
After his playing career, Simms embarked on a multi-decade span as a top game and studio analyst, first with NBC and then with CBS. Altogether as a broadcaster, he announced 8 Super Bowls which ranks in the upper echelon of football announcers.
But even with all those accolades, Phil Simms isn’t waiting with baited breath for a call from Canton. As he told Kay Adams on the Monday edition of Up & Adams, he believes he doesn’t deserve to get in even as a potential senior ballot selection someday.
“I never think about it,” Simms said. “I don’t deserve to be in it. Maybe if I wouldn’t have got hurt in some of my career, things like that. Maybe I should have got when they asked me to be the alternate for the Pro Bowl and they called me and I said, ‘man I’m not coming I’ve already turned that off’ and whatever. So I probably could have been five Pro Bowls, maybe all that would have helped.”
Kay Adams tried to press Phil Simms and convince him that he was indeed Hall of Fame worthy, but to no avail.
“I don’t want to say I don’t care,” he replied. “I don’t deserve to be in. And I’m fine with that. Honestly, winning the damn Super Bowls, I got something out of all this.”
Whether it may be through the senior committee or as a contributor to the game, Phil Simms definitely has a strong case to be considered for enshrinement in Canton someday. He was a face of the league for 40 years between his playing days and broadcast career. Even though he is very modest about his case, there are scores of NFL players who would likely trade Hall of Fame resumes with him in a heartbeat.