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Last year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ ownership gave quarterback Chris Simms a $2 million gift, putting him on injured reserve and paying his entire base salary at a time when coach Jon Gruden reportedly wanted to cut Simms loose.
Now, Simms has put himself in line to pay back a big chunk of it.
According to our friends at Pewter Report, G.M. Bruce Allen said on Tuesday that Simms’ absence is unexcused. And this means that he’s in violation of his contract.
Under a two-year deal signed in late 2006, Simms received a $3 million signing bonus. As a result, $1.5 million of the bonus is allocated to the 2008 season. Assuming that the Bucs included language permitting the maximum recovery of signing bonus money in the deal, Simms likely now owes the team 25 percent of $1.5 million, which is $375,000.
If Simms doesn’t show up at all, and if the Bucs don’t cut him loose, he’ll owe the full $1.5 million.
The only question is whether the Bucs will try to get it back.
As one league insider observed, “The one thing we know is that the Buccaneers will pursue bonus money.”
Indeed. Just ask Keenan McCardell and Jake Plummer.
June 17th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Fair enough — you don’t feeling like playing on your own volition, then you don’t deserve to keep your signing bonus — and yet I still expect the Gruden bashers will come on here soon, feeling sorry for Simms say he should keep the money and then somehow loop that back into the Jerramy Stevens signing, which got more negative feedback for something that happened 10 years ago than Leonard “I really did kill someone while I played in the NFL” Little ever did.
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June 17th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Thats a Great point Kool Herc. Funny how things always ends up on Grudens shoulders, even though he wanted to cut the kid loose last year. Why don’t people blame the glazers? they are the ones who decided to pay him all that money? I get the fact the kid almost died. He deserved to sit and get paid. But now to bitch while being a sub par QB. Thats just plain wrong. Stevens is wrong and shouldn’t be in the NFL but indeed. He never killed anyone.
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June 17th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Chris, I loved your game and your mettle, but don’t be a dumb@ss. Show up to the mandatory sessions (and the OTAs) and play your heart out!!! This is doing neither the Bucs nor your career any good. If you kick butt with the Bucs, that will force them to either play you or trade you. Sitting at home sulking is only souring the rest of the 31 teams on you.
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June 17th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
No argument with the idea LL needs punishment / banishment… but that doesnt mean anyone should go soft on the coed raper.
And frankly, Simms is like 6-10 as a starter… and without that young RB, he would be like 3-13. Even JO-EY is more competitive than that.
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June 17th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Let’s see… 1 Touchdown, 7 Pics and only GOD HIMSELF knows how many BATTED BALLS @ the Line of Scrimmage in his last 4 Starts; Injured for what amounts to 2 Football Seasons and NOW Doesn’t show up for Minicamp YET says he’s completely Recovered from his Injury? Out of Sight, Out of Mind. The kid has Zero Value in terms of NFL Football (@ this point) and he’s NOT helping his Future by not at least Showing IF he still has the ability to play NFL Football.
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June 17th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Simms has to be an idiot, report to camp, insist on lifting weights, running, full contact everything, 1st time somebody hits you.. oops guguess its IR for the year again..
certainly a more profitable scenario than coughing up a bunch of your signing bonus for not reporting.
And if the team sends you home YOU file a grievance which makes you an UFA and allows you to go where you want AND keep your cash..
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June 17th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
In regards to the batted balls that mortal brought up — if I recall correctly during the Panthers game prior to him getting hurt or possibly the one before that — the announcers mentioned some crazy stat that was something like Simms had more batted balls in his career than Brett Favre had in his lengthy career or something like unbelievable like that. I think it was 11 balls batted in 3 games or something. Also people mention a weak O-line, while that was true Simms would hold the ball too long at times too, which doesn’t help an O-line.
He battled for us that year and he deserves admiration for the grit he showed dealing with a severe injury but his results were definitely below average prior to that.
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June 17th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
The Pats have tape of Simms dogging it while his team mates practice.
Cut Simms…he got his $ 2 mill gratis…vamos.
Jeremy’s innocent…just like Ray Lewis is. This is America right…except in Seattle. Where there is a media silence for 8 years while you play for the local nfl affiliate. Once traded though, the local paper grows “a pair”. Imagine that. Hypocrites leading “the sheep” (that’s You, reader).
Back to Simms, show up or shutup. What a dickhead.The man is spleenless.
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June 17th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Who cares…he’s Trash!!!
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June 17th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Chris has made a big mistake by not showing up. All he had to do was prove he’s a good team-mate, and team would look all the worst for not cutting him loose sooner. Now he’s set himself up to be the bad guy of the dispute.
My folks always said “try hard and have fun”. If you can’t have the latter, at least take the latter and make the other side of the conflict take the blame.
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June 17th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
no wonder why Gruden calls him basketcase
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June 17th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Dear Bucs,
Stick it to Simms. Sign Major Applewhite.
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June 18th, 2008 at 4:12 am
The whole scenario smacks of a desperate man. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Steve Young was right - Simms is not cut out for the NFL.
Those of us who watched him in college are not at all surprised.
Bad advice or not, Simms ultimately made the choice to make his ridiculous whining public remarks about “Coach Gruden was MEAN to me.”
His career being on the downward trajectory it is, he can hardly afford to act like a prima donna.
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June 18th, 2008 at 7:28 am
This hold out makes no sense. He hates the Bucs, but yet he decides not to show and has to pay them $8k a day ($14k if he holds out at training camp), plus the Bucs can now go after his signing bonus. It is not like there are a dozen teams lined up ready to make him their starter. At the end of the day it will turn out similar to McCardell - he will loose a lot of money and not be in any better situation than he had in Tampa.
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