 Simms says relationship with Gruden broken Chris Simms may not have had a chance to reclaim his old job, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback said it’s a foregone conclusion he’ll never play for the team again. Calling his relationship with Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden completely “broken,” Simms told the Tampa Tribune on Tuesday that he can never suit up for the team again - at least not as long as Gruden is in charge. “It is totally broken,” Simms told the newspaper. “And it kills me to say that, because the Bucs have been great to me; the fans have been great to me; I love being in Tampa; my family loves being in Tampa. “It’s an awesome sports town, a town that loves football. But the relationship between me and coach Gruden - it’s broken. It just is. And I don’t see any way it’s going to get better again.” Simms, the son of former New York Giants great Phil Simms, said the relationship with Gruden unraveled at the start of training camp last season - less than a year after he underwent surgery to remove his spleen that ended his season in 2006.
The final straw for Simms came when he felt Gruden was questioning the seriousness of the injury and then played him in a preseason contest despite getting very little practice time in training camp.
“I do believe that he thought I might be faking it,” Simms said. “I mean, he asked me, ‘Is it in your head?’ For him to say that, that’s just not right. There are just a lot of things that I can never forgive him for. “I mean, he never once sat down at any point with me and asked me what I was going through, how I felt, even as a person. That said a lot to me. That’s why I feel like I can never play for him again.” There was no comment from either Gruden or Bucs officials on the issue.
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