COMMENTARY : Reeves Was Wrong About Simms

For the first time in his life, Dan Reeves won’t shut up. He won’t shut up about the quarterbacks he still has with the New York Giants, neither of whom is a sure thing to last, and he won’t shut up about Phil Simms, the quarterback he fired.

Reeves was in the newspaper the other day, talking about the decision he and George Young, the Giants’ general manager, made to cut Simms in June. Reeves talked about how Simms--coming off winter surgery on his right shoulder--couldn’t throw the ball to anybody except running backs in the spring.

“I don’t think there’s any question it was the right decision, given what I had to base the decision on,” Reeves was quoted as saying. “Because nobody could tell me right now--and Phil can sit there and tell you, ‘Yeah, I can play’--but Phil hadn’t thrown passes any day in practice or thrown it 40 or 50 yards downfield or anything.”

Reeves tells us that Simms, coming off one of the great seasons of his life, was too much of a physical risk, even though Simms is a horse who had come back from everything in his Giant career. The Giants also saw him as a financial risk because he had a $2.5-million salary, and the NFL’s salary cap was squeezing.

Reeves and Young made a terrible decision with Simms. They got away with it at the time only because they were coming off a terrific season, and because Simms was willing to play the role of Good Giant.

Simms is no longer so inclined.

“I would have been 100% by training camp,” he said. “I have absolutely no doubt about that. Was I throwing the ball to running backs? Sure I was. But each day, I was feeling better than I did the day before. I could feel myself getting stronger, the way you do when you’re rehabbing something.

“When I felt like I was ready to throw the ball in some drills, I told (Reeves) that. He said, ‘No, no, no.’ And I thought, boy, they’re really being careful, they’re really treating me nice. Well, that wasn’t the case at all. I never got another chance to play and they released me.”

Reeves was coach of the year in the NFL last season, and deserved the award. Nobody would have called him a genius if Simms had not been one of the most effective quarterbacks in the sport. Did Simms turn 38 during the season? He sure did. He also was still standing at the finish. The Giants played 18 games and Simms started all of them.

Now Reeves says it was unusual for Simms to make it through a whole season in one piece. Well, if Simms’ condition was such a concern to the Giants, they should have let Simms go and signed Jeff Hostetler. Hostetler is younger, and Reeves wouldn’t be in the fix he is now, offering so many explanations about his quarterbacks past and present.

Simms threw a lot of touchdown passes, for Reeves and everybody else who coached him. He put the Giants back in the playoffs last season. He helped Reeves become coach of the year. Reeves now acts as if the team had no choice but to shove Simms out the door.

Forget how far Simms could throw the ball in June. Forget training camp. If Simms couldn’t have shown up until a month ago, it would be a better season for the Giants.