Phil Simms and Bill Parcells formed one of the most successful quarterback-coach pairings in the New York Giants‘ history, but it was not always happy days for the duo. Simms recently recalled a moment when he lost his patience with Parcells and told him to stop talking.
“I had nicknames, but I can’t tell you what they are because they’re X-rated, you know,” Simms said on the Coach2Coach podcast. “It’s Bill Parcells. Sims. … I said to him once in practice, I’m standing behind, and I just got done with my reps with the first-team offense. And he’s standing next to me yelling at me.
“And I’m just like listening. I turn to him. I go, ‘Will you shut up? All you do is complain.’ So what do you think he does? He goes, ‘Oh, Sims is mad at me.’ I mean, like quarterback play, but coaching, there are a thousand ways to coach players and teams. And Bill had his own way. That’s for sure.”
Easy-going had never been part of Bill Parcells’ coaching style. He made life miserable for his players in practice. He dunked footballs in soapy water to get the team ready for rainy games, made everyone wear long sleeves, and banned tape around the cleats. Players were in for a tough time.
“If you’re sensitive, you will have a hard time with me,” Bill Parcells said when asked about his eccentric way of motivating players, according to ESPN. “The only players I hurt with my words are the ones who have an inflated opinion of their ability. I can’t worry about that.”
Most of those tense moments stayed on the practice field, but one of them happened during a game. In 1990, taking on the Indianapolis Colts at the RCA Dome (then called the Hoosier Dome), the tension boiled over on the sideline.
It started with a routine incomplete pass. Simms threw it to Rodney Hampton instead of Dave Meggett, which is where Parcells wanted the ball to go. It didn’t matter to Parcells that Simms was a franchise QB — having played more than 10 seasons at that point — and a Super Bowl winner and MVP.
Most of the time, Simms brushed off Parcells’ yelling, but on this day he stepped up and shouted back. Simms said previously his teammates were thrilled with how he stood up to the coach, and some even said they wished they could talk to Parcells that way too.
This was one of the few times that he went up against Bill Parcells. And each time, his daring attitude unnerved him after firing back at the coach.
“Every once in a while when I would say something back, I would go, ‘Oh my gosh, that is the man I just did that to. I’m in trouble.'”
Simms says people make too much of their relationship when it comes to arguments.
“People always talk about our relationship, but we had very few arguments,” Simms said, per the Giants website. “But we did have one big one, and it was on TV. I never wanted to show off to coach. I tell people all the time, never did I once look at Bill and not know who he was. I knew he was the man in charge. He had all the power and the biggest thing of all: you respected him; that’s his position, and you never cross that line.”
Simms could not play for the Giants in the postseason in 1990 due to a foot injury. It suddenly upended the team’s chances of success, and the team had to relegate to backup QB Jeff Hostetler. He had very little experience at that point, but Parcells, in his own way, got the team to rally around him.
“I remember going in and I sat down and I said, ‘Listen, Jeff’s been with us five or six years. Hasn’t got to play that much, but he knows what he’s doing. He’s been here. He has enough experience with our system. And it’s not going to be because of him that we don’t win this championship. It’ll be one of you [others],'” he said on the Football Doesn’t Lie podcast.
“I can’t say what I said at the time, [to describe the others]; wasn’t complimentary,” he added.
In the end, Simms’ career says plenty about how he handled that pressure. He played 164 games, threw for 33,462 yards and 199 touchdowns. The numbers go to show that the former HC’s tough love ultimately paid off.