Despite losing his position on the lead NFL on CBS broadcast team, Phil Simms will still be a familiar face on the network’s coverage next season.
CBS Sports announced Wednesday that Simms will join the cast of its NFL pregame show The NFL Today, filling the vacancy left by Tony Gonzalez, who announced his departure from the show last month. The news was first reported by Sports Business Daily and Sports Illustrated.
Simms is no stranger to the studio, having served as an analyst on Showtime’s Inside the NFL since 2008. He also worked in ESPN’s NFL studio at the beginning of his career. Even so, he enters his 20th season with CBS as the rookie on a show made up of James Brown, Bill Cowher, Boomer Esiason and Bart Scott.
In an interview with SI, Simms said that while his demotion in favor of neophyte Tony Romo initially hurt his pride, he is now “excited” to work in the studio. Simms: “I now get to follow the league like I want to. That was probably the most frustrating thing about my job. You do one or two games a week, you can’t really pay attention to the other teams like I wanted to do.”
Simms had been part of a lead NFL broadcast team for 22 consecutive years, dating back to his time on NBC’s lead team with Paul Maguire and Dick Enberg in the 1990s.
(Wed. news from Sports Illustrated 4.19, Sports Business Daily)
