Phil Simms is being replaced by Tony Romo as a member of CBS’s top NFL broadcast duo next season, and apparently he never saw it coming.
While speaking about the situation on his Bleacher Report podcast Thursday, Simms’ son Chris revealed that CBS officials did not inform Phil that they intended to remove him as Jim Nantz’s on-air partner. Instead, Chris was made aware of the impending Romo hire by an NFL insider, and he passed the information along to his father while Phil was on vacation.
“He’s good. If there’s anything he is a little disappointed is that they didn’t talk to him right away and warn him this was happening,” Chris Simms said, per Justin Terranova of the New York Post. “That’s not what you do for a good, hard-working employee who’s been with you 20 years and the face of your football station. From that, it probably does hurt.
“I don’t know if my dad would be happy with me saying this: You can’t sit there as a normal person out there and look at this and say they handled it like professionals. [The possibility] has been out there for two weeks.”
Phil has yet to comment publicly about the situation, but CBS is denying that he was blindsided.
“Both Phil and his agent [Steve Rosner] knew in advance of the announcement and CBS had been in regular communication with his agent prior to that,” a spokesperson for the network said.
Simms has been with CBS since 1998, and he could remain with the network despite the Romo hire. Perhaps more intriguing, Chris said he believes Nantz had some control over whether or not his father was pushed out.
“I would think to some degree or fashion Jim Nantz had to sign off on this,” he said.
We’ll probably learn more about the inner workings of the Romo deal in the coming weeks and months. If there ends up being any truth to these rumors, Simms might end up getting his old job back someday. Though, if he wasn’t getting along with Nantz for some reason, the addition of Romo may not be as relevant as it seems.
