Chris Simms On WFAN: 'I Would Know Immediately' If Football Not Right
NEW YORK (WFAN) -- Tom Brady says he has no idea how footballs became underinflated during the AFC title game on Sunday.
Former NFL quarterback Chris Simms isn't about to call him a liar, but he has a "hard time believing the total truth" of the press conference conducted by Brady as Deflate-gate enters Day 5.
"No, I can't buy it all, I've got to say," Simms, now a CBS analyst, said during a guest co-hosting appearance Friday on WFAN's "Boomer & Carton" show. "As a quarterback, the football is your life. You grab the football how many times a year between OTAs, training camp, of course every day in practice during the season. You would certainly know if a football was 12.5 pounds of pressure or 10.5 pounds of pressure.
"I couldn't come across a quarterback that played a substantial amount of time in the NFL that wouldn't know."
Chris Simms On Deflate-Gate
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Eleven of 12 balls used by the New England Patriots against the Indianapolis Colts were significantly underinflated as defined in the rulebook, according to an ESPN report. On Thursday, Brady said he likes his footballs at 12.5 pounds of pressure per square inch, which is exactly the league's minimum threshold. But he insisted he couldn't tell during the game that the footballs were too soft, which could make them easier to grip.
"I would know immediately," said Simms, whose career spanned seven years with Tampa Bay, Tennessee and Denver. He also served as a coaching assistant for the Patriots in 2012.
Simms' father, former Giants quarterback Phil Simms, called in during the 9 a.m. hour and said he'd "absolutely" be able to feel the difference.
"I'd be shocked if I couldn't tell," Phil Simms said.
Phil Simms: I'd Be Able To Tell If Football Underinflated
Co-host Craig Carton brought a football into the studio that he had deflated from 15 to 11.5 psi and couldn't feel any disparity. It was different for Chris Simms, who later in the show said he'd ask for balls to be decommissioned mid-game if something wasn't right.
"I grabbed it as well. I could tell the difference," Simms said. "And I think you would even be able to tell a more significant difference if you had (an official) football. I really do."
He also wasn't sure a referee, with smaller hands than a professional athlete, would be able to tell something was off just by feel.
"I would like to think so, but I'm not going to put them in the same class as an NFL quarterback as far as knowing the footballs," Simms said. "Referees, they're not really trying to grip the football and hold it in a certain way. They're just kind of getting the ball, spotting it, and that's about it."
Simms said he never came across a football that appeared to be outside NFL regulations.
"Every game I ever played in or was the backup in or whatever, I would be standing on the sidelines, the opposing team's ball boy is over there, I would always say, 'Let me see how Brett Favre likes his footballs. Let me see how Peyton Manning likes his footballs.' And the ball boy would let me grab it for a second," he said. "I never came across a football where I said, 'Ooh that's questionable if that's inflated or not.' "
The Patriots would likely have beaten the Colts either way, which as many have said, makes the whole scandal so maddening. Simms believes that if the NFL's investigation turns up wrongdoing by the Patriots, there's no way it started with the AFC championship game.
"It is about the integrity of the game," he said. "And if this did happen, you have one guy who basically took the rules into his own hands and said, you know what, I want to feel comfortable out here today. And I'll have a hard time believing, if this all does come true, that this was the only game it happened all year long. I would think it happened all year long."
He had an easier time believing Belichick, who also held a press conference Thursday and couldn't provide an explanation for the underinflated footballs. The 34-year-old Simms described the Patriots head coach, who he worked under for one season, as a guy who knows every single rule in the book.
The Patriots will face the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1 in Glendale, Arizona.
