Jeffery Simmons had spent his Mississippi State years trying to make sure people saw more than the video. There were receipts: no further incidents during his three years in Starkville, a 3.0-plus GPA in human development and family science, two SEC Academic Honor Roll selections, community work, mentoring in Macon, the Newsom Award and elite football production. Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen even called him “the model for what you want in a student-athlete.” Then, 2019 Draft Night arrived. The Tennessee Titans had decided his past wouldn’t stop them from making him a first-round pick.

Simmons and his brother were sitting together in matching outfits when the Titans called at No. 19. They had already watched his draft stock take a hit: Simmons had torn his ACL during a pre-draft workout, while ESPN reported that 11 teams had taken him completely off their boards because of the high school incident. The brothers embraced when Simmons got off the phone, and he later described the opportunity as “a brand new start in life.” Yet the high school video had followed him through the draft process. On the night he was finally drafted, it was back on the broadcast. For Simmons, that is a memory that still lingers…

“It was hard,” Simmons said on The Pivot Podcast. “It still kills me when guys are getting ready to get drafted and people bring up old stuff because I went through that. It went from an exciting moment in that room with my family to turning off the TV… I mean, I got the call. I mean, we were waiting on my name to get called. But then boom. They go to ESPN putting up this video. Reason why I kind of still got a little beef with ESPN.

“But that’s supposed to be a moment of happiness, and it still. I’ll never forget my draft night, but I never forget that happening. That happened when I was in high school before I even graduated high school… But it was like, now is this what people really about to think of me and your biggest. I didn’t know how even the Tennessee Titans was going to accept me.”

The controversial video came from a public altercation that took place in Jeffery Simmons’ life back in 2016, before he entered Mississippi State University.

The incident took place at an apartment complex in Macon, Mississippi, during a dispute involving Simmons’ family and Sophia Taylor. Simmons said he initially tried to break up a fight between Taylor and his sister before “letting my emotions take over.” Video from the incident showed Simmons striking Taylor several times while she was on the ground.

The NFL DT pleaded no contest to simple assault and was found guilty of malicious mischief. The disturbing-the-peace charge was dismissed, while Simmons was ordered to pay fines and restitution, including Taylor’s medical expenses. He also publicly apologized, writing that he was defending his family but acknowledging, “I wasn’t thinking.” Mississippi State subsequently suspended him for the first game of his college career.

That history was still enough to affect his path to the NFL. The league did not invite Simmons to the 2019 Scouting Combine under its policy concerning past issues involving violence. He was later permitted to travel to Indianapolis for medical evaluations, but could not participate in the other Combine events. By then, he had also torn his ACL and was recovering from surgery, leaving both his health and his past hanging over a player who had been projected as a potential top-10 pick.

The Titans, however, had done more than simply look past the incident. Amy Adams Strunk, Mike Vrabel and Jon Robinson had spent months vetting Simmons and speaking with people from his life. Strunk said she and the Titans’ leadership had watched the video themselves before deciding to draft him. After the selection, she told Simmons, “We are getting a great football player… but we are getting a great man,” adding that he deserved a second chance.

Simmons sat two seats away from Strunk during his introductory press conference and put his head down as she spoke. He eventually wiped away tears. “The key word she said was trust,” Simmons said while fighting back emotion. “I’ll tell her in front of you guys that she can trust me. I won’t let her down.”

That made the ESPN broadcast even more jarring for Simmons. Tennessee had spent months deciding whether the worst moment of his teenage years should keep them from trusting him with a first-round pick. Mississippi State had spent three years watching what he did after that moment. And on Draft Night, ESPN put the same footage back in front of viewers.

The Titans ultimately got the player they believed they were drafting. Simmons missed the start of his rookie season while recovering from the ACL injury, then developed into one of the team’s foundational players. Four years after drafting him, the Titans were still pointing back to that trust, and in June 2026, the franchise gave Simmons another multi-year extension after he had become a four-time Pro Bowler and one of its central players. However, Simmons’ later career has not been completely free of confrontations.

In July 2024, he got into two scuffles during a Titans practice before approaching local radio host Buck Reising over criticism Reising had made on social media. Simmons later apologized for the verbal altercation, saying, “That’s not who I am or who I want to be seen as,” and took full accountability for his actions.

The physical confrontations have also continued on the football field. Simmons was involved in a training-camp scuffle with rookie quarterback Cam Ward in August 2025 after Ward shoved him following a touchdown celebration. Simmons responded by putting both hands on Ward’s facemask, then later insisted that the two were “good” and that it was simply part of practice. ESPN had also noted the competitive back-and-forth between Simmons and right tackle JC Latham, writing that the two were frequently at the center of skirmishes at Titans practice.

There was another confrontation during Tennessee’s November 2025 game against Jacksonville, when Simmons was involved in an altercation with a Jaguars player. The Titans-Jaguars game had several scrums and penalties, and Simmons described the rivalry simply: “The Jags don’t like the Titans, the Titans don’t like the Jags.”

And the pattern has carried into 2026. On Aug. 4, Simmons was ejected from Titans practice after a scuffle with center Austin Schlottmann and then swinging at right tackle JC Latham. New head coach Robert Saleh said Simmons had to leave practice because the team’s rule is simple: throwing a punch means you’re out. Simmons was allowed to continue his workout on a side field with the strength staff.

None of those later incidents is the same as the 2016 case. The latter involved a criminal assault outside football; the incidents since then have largely come during the intensity of practices or games, with the 2024 radio-host confrontation being verbal. But they do mean Simmons’ story since high school is not as simple as a clean slate with no further moments of aggression.

That makes the ESPN broadcast even more complicated. Tennessee had spent months deciding whether the worst moment of Simmons’ teenage years should keep them from trusting him with a first-round pick. Mississippi State had spent three years watching what he did after that moment. Simmons himself had continued to have confrontations later in his career. Yet none of that changes what happened on Draft Night: ESPN put the 2016 footage back in front of him and his family on the night he was trying to begin his NFL life.