TallySaint

Notebook: Now hear this -- Simms ready to take next step


July 8, 2006

By Pete Prisco
CBS SportsLine.com Senior Writer




TAMPA, Fla. -- The voice is right behind Chris Simms all the time on the practice field, a loud, foul-mouthed diatribe after every play, some of it so nasty in tone and filled with expletives it would make a longshoreman blush.

When you're a young quarterback in the NFL, it's not easy to have Jon Gruden as your coach. He's a terror on his passers, unleashing verbal barrages no matter what they do, making them do it his way and no other.

It can be grating and degrading. But it's also something much more important: useful.

Gruden knows how to get the most out of quarterbacks. Heck, he won a Super Bowl with Brad Johnson, which is all the proof anyone needs. That's why as a rookie and second-year player under Gruden with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Simms took it all, from the razor-sharp insults to the R-rated rips. It was part of the growing process.

"I think that's one of the things he does, and kind of his method behind his madness," Simms said recently during the team's minicamp. "In my first year or two he was always behind me during practice, constantly screaming. He was always on my case to where when it got time to get to the game, I was so glad he wasn't standing right behind. He's at least 30 yards away. I might have to hear him, but at least he's not right there. That helped relax me."

The word coming from the Bucs is that Simms was Gruden's unofficial whipping boy for a couple of years. The coach saw the talent but wondered if he would ever see it massaged into a quality quarterback.

Would Gruden ever trust Simms?

He was forced to last season. After Brian Griese went down with torn knee ligaments, Gruden turned to Simms. He started 10 games, won six of them, led the Bucs to the playoffs and, for the first time in his career, now goes into a season as the unchallenged starter.

This former third-round pick is on his way to being a Pro Bowl passer.

You read that right: Pro Bowl passer. He has the makeup. He's smart. He understands the game. He reads defenses well, and he has a strong arm. Plus, you know he can handle the heat.

While Gruden might not be right behind him during games -- he would be if rules allowed it -- the voice is there on the headset between plays.

"If somebody was listening off on the side not involved, you'd probably laugh a lot," Simms said. "Of course he has a pretty dirty mouth. The luxury we now have as quarterbacks is to listen to the coach after every play. He's extremely intense and passionate. If a play goes good, he gets pumped up and he's yelling in your ear. If it goes bad, you know it because you hear four-letter words going through your helmet."


Story continues.....
http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/9545884/1


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My Guardian Angel wears a hard hat.

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