APAs the NFL world remembers the late Raiders owner Al Davis, former Giants quarterback Phil Simms is offering up a particularly interesting memory.
Simms, who has never coached at any level, said on Inside the NFL that Davis once approached him about becoming the head coach of the Raiders.
“He did offer me to become a Raiders coach, and to be their head coach. I got interviewed over the phone for many, many hours,” Simms said.
Simms didn’t say when this conversation took place, and it sounds like he didn’t seriously consider accepting. He believes that if he had accepted the job it would have ended badly.
“Of course I turned it down,” Simms said. “I’m glad I did because how bitter would I be if I got hired and fired a few times?”
It’s strange to think about Phil Simms roaming the sideline in Oakland. And it’s another reminder that Al Davis did things very differently from the rest of the NFL.
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Simms and Nance makeup about the worst commentary crew ever.
Sure he did Phil. He offered me a chance to play running back in 1987
going to far now….. al davis offer me the job to !!!
Does anyone else believe this story to be true?
I certainly don’t, it sounded like Simms just wanted to fluff his own ego…. again!
There was almost no point or context to why he even said something like this!
yeah right phil
Yeah right Phil! He offered me the job too!
hahahahahahahaha Phil Simms is such a joke
I believe he talked to Phil about coaching. Apparently Davis floated that out there often. He didnt always mean it obviously. Simms has quite the ego if he really thinks Davis would hire him as HC. I do believe that Davis may have brought him in as a OC. But come on, Phil. Get over yourself.
Oh God…Why didn’t he take the job?!?!?!? Get him out of the booth. Please…I beg you.
Amen
Phil your pants are on fire!
why would he hire one who never had any coaching jobs, or a so-so player.. as a QB coach, then I would have believed it..
Dont believe you for a second, and from now on everything you say will be overshadowed by this lie..
… and Tiki Barber said Al Davis promised him 2 weeks ago over the phone that he could come be the featured RB over McFadden
Is there anyone he DIDN’T offer the job to?
Next week PFT will report that kid thats only aloud to score what two or 3 touchdowns a game was offer the raiders coaching job!!!
With the passing of Mr. Davis, may he rest in peace, the Raiders coaching position becomes considerably more attractive.
& to add on why would he offer him the head coaching job instead of the QB coach job?
As much as we though of Al as being “crazy” or whatever, he did a good job as a whole and it looks like he has set up the team for the future to be good. It’s too bad he isn’t around to see this.
Simms has no reason to lie…
And it’s another reminder that Al Davis did things very differently from the rest of the NFL.
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It’s a reminder that Al Davis was senile.
This is true.
Simms’ story is corroborated by sportscaster Jim Gray, who brought the story out of Simms on Westwood 1′s radio coverage of MNF this week.
Gray said he acted as an intermediary between Davis and Simms, contacting Simms on Davis’ behalf.
Uncle Rico: How much you wanna make a bet I can throw a football over them mountains?… Yeah… Coach woulda put me in fourth quarter, we would’ve been state champions. No doubt. No doubt in my mind.
Phil got offered a job there about the same time Run Run Jones died.
should of taken the job Phil, because you suck as a color commentator
I heard Al offered Chris Simms a job as Towel Boy
Simms coaching and Millen as GM – Dream Team!
Weird, he offered it to me too!!
at 1st, I thought it said “Chris Simms”
(whoa….I better lay off the bloody Mary’s)
Leave it to Phil “Look At Me” Simms to put words in a deceased man’s mouth. What a jerk.
Davis was just taking one for the team and getting Sims out of the booth.
He offered me the job too. I didn’t even know Al Davis had my phone number.
Yeah surrreeee Phil! And I bet you once caught a fish that was THIS big!!!!!!!
Davis also offered Alfred E. Newman the job, and though he turned it down, there is a rumor that he was Davis’ special assistant for a few years.
Phil Simms is probably the best analyst in the game. He’s always on top of things & has great insight. It’s a shame that you have to suffer through a Jet game most weeks to hear him, but sometimes it’s worth it. Glad he didn’t take the job.
John Madden coached the Raiders, do we really need to question that Phil Simms was offered the job. I think it’s safe to say that John Madden is not the reason why the Raiders were good back then….
Phil Simms and his son (Chrissy) are both useless. Visions of grandeur on both of them.
I have lost what very little respect I had for Phil after this joke of a revelation. Funny how you decidto go public with this lie after Mr. Davis is gone. You are a complete moron Phil.
RAIDER NATION!!
Denny Green is laughing right now…
Phil is who he thought he was.
Now that the old coot is gone, crap stories like this will continue to come out since he can’t efute them.
phil sims,a legend in his own mind!
i guess he would have signed collingsworth as his OC too,aye?
It could have been 2006 when Al fired Norv Turner and no one wanted the job and Al gave it to Art Shell. That was a very dark time for the Raiders.
Al Davis offered me One Million Dollars to spend the night with my wife. I said one night? You can have her for $500K
Phil Simms is so full of crap and should be called out publicly for it
He offered me one too.
Anybody else?
Think I just heard Simms’ horn tooting!??
He must have been ‘burning one’ with his son before this statement!…
Oh, no, my bad… it was the guy in the car with Simms who was ‘burning one’….lol
Next time ya listen to Phil Simms commentating count how many times he says, “TALK ABOUT…” You’ll get close to 100 times.
He’s a horrible announcer and Al Davis never would’ve hired him as a Head Coach, maybe a QB coach. But never a Head Coach!
vbe2 says: Oct 13, 2011 11:45 AM
And it’s another reminder that Al Davis did things very differently from the rest of the NFL.
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It’s a reminder that Al Davis was senile.
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26 of the last 29 players Al Davis drafted are still with the team, 26 of 29.
You call that being senile?
Ice Cube would have been offered a coaching job before Phil Simms
he offered me the job to
thats funny, I interviewed for the same job over the phone with Al as well. I drew up some x’s and o’s on the board, and al clearly liked what he saw on the phone. this is true because dumbolt was there.
Al once offered me a 51% ownership stake in the Raiders, too. But I turned it down. I didn’t feel it would have worked out for me or my family.
It’s true , Al called me right up after he hung up from Phil, and said you know nothing about coaching, so for the first time in the history of my life, every other owner’s life in every professional sport, I am going to hire a guy who has never coached before.
Then I told him, I am your man, and he said well I got another guy who at least played the game, and I said what does that matter, we both don’t know Jack. Then I thought about it, and said gee I could have one of the most elite jobs in the world on my resume, but I might get fired, and really what fun would that be. So I passed on the job so i could go into the media where I can say whatever I want, whenever I want and I will never get fired for that….such job security.
Wait, what?
Phil, are you fishing for attention again?
John F. Kennedy once offered me the job of Secretary of State, yes sir, yes he did.
I don’t believe one ounce of that story. This guy is trying to get attention off of AD and on to himself. I bet he has never even talked to Al. What a sad and rediculous way to try and get some attention.
I’m Al Davis and Phil Simms was too slow to be my Head Coach.
Al Davis is my Pappa.
This had to have happened within the last 10 years. There are a lot of great things to remember Al for, but the last 10 years is not one of them. The man kind of lost in terms of managing an NFL Franchise.
I get offers every day!! But I dont brag about it!
Phil Simms a head coach!!!!! LOL Maybe Phil Seems Head-job sounds better!!
Next we will hear that he was the behind-the-scene quaterback coach under Parcells!!
Your’re talking about the same idiot owner who hired Art Shell twice….
TWICE!
Simms will be remembered as being part of one of the great franchises, not the laughing stock of the NFL….
Tiki is flabbergasted.
Leave it to Phil Simms to say something ELSE that cannot be verified.
If Phil HAD gotten the job, Hostetler would have had to come in and win the big games for Al, like he did in that Super Bowl win! D’OH !
Phil, you lie like a rug. Al would’ve brought you out to HQ and grilled you with the chalkboard for a couple of days before he would offer you the HC position. Maybe, MAYBE he invited you out for a real interview, but he didn’t offer you the job. That doesn’t fit with the way Al Davis always did it.
Jim Nance is a golf announcer, how in the hell he gets to call an NFL game or a NCAA game is beyond me. And then you have Gus Johnson, the most enthusiastic PBP man today, just calling his first game of the season a few weeks ago.
FOX should put Gus in the booth w/ Tim Ryan…i would get the overpriced sunday ticket just to tivo their games.
GO EAGLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Boy can you say big fat lie…come on Phil and tell us why would Al do such a thing? Oh and btw Fox has offered me the role of made for TV movie about Louis Armstrong had to turn them down not chubby enough, not dark enough and I can’t play a single instrument…
Phil have you been smoking weed with Chris???
Yeah I remember that Phil. That’s when he offered me the Raiders GM job. (wink, wink)
This is hilarious. Only Phil Simms would conjure up such a load of crap. I mean, he does it every Sunday in the fall.
Phil… that just goes to show that you missed Al’s sense of humor!
Wake up Phil, if that conversation did happen it was just Al being facetious
Al Davis never would have hired a 32 year old college football QB coach to be his head coach. Wait, he did.
Al Davis never would hire a bed and breakfast owner to be his offensive coordinator. Wait, he did.
Al Davis would never draft a fat QB with poor work ethic as the 1st overall draft pick only to cut him a couple of years later. Wait, he did.
You Raider homers forgot how senile Al Davis was in his last 24 years with the team. 6 playoff appearances in that time span.
Why would Phil Simms lie about something like this? Would surprise me if Senile Al tried something like this.
the only job for Phil would be Assistant to the Traveling Secretary
It’s amazing the things a dead had said when he was alive…. well, as long as he’s not around to defend himself, he’s the one who started the Texas forest fire.
Take that Phil
Actually, I turned the job down too. Al said he was “extremely disappointed” and then turned to Simms as a consolation prize.
Honk if your turned down a coaching job from Al Davis. Al Davis probably was scouting Pop Warner games for head coaching prospects in his last year, but they turned down Senile Al as well.
Yeah. Ok. I’ll buy that.
BS story. Just trying to get people talking about something besides him sucking on air.
For all you mouth-breathing Raiders fans who are “contributing” your opinions here, the word you are looking for is “too” not “to”. Unfortunately for you, they didn’t stress that distinction in your GED classes in the Alameda county jail.
Al Davis should of gave Snoop Dogg the Head Coaching gig before Phil Simms. At least Snoop Dogg has coaching experience (on a smaller level) and his sons are better at football then any of the Simm’s boys. Snoop Dogg for HC and GM!
I wish he would’ve taken it! Then I wouldn’t have to listen to his sorry commentary every week!
I believe it. For a qb that was under the qb wrath of Parcells for so long, I can see Davis making that call and kicking the tires. Granted he was probably intoxicated on something or alot of things but I can def. see Davis making a latenight booty call on behalf of his Raiders.
Hold your horses Mr. PHD not all Raiders fan are in jail. I’m sure your team have fan who are in jail at this momment as well. if you procliam yourself as an educated person than how can you not pictured that? Show me prove of your education or else it would just be another classless lies. Shame on you and the insitution that graduated your ass. lol
dougydougdoug says:
Oct 13, 2011 2:35 PM
For all you mouth-breathing Raiders fans who are “contributing” your opinions here, the word you are looking for is “too” not “to”. Unfortunately for you, they didn’t stress that distinction in your GED classes in the Alameda county jail.
Sure Phil, Al offered me a house, Bentley & yacht.
Giants’ haters out in full force – WOW!
Let me shed some knowledge on you folk:
1) As an announcer, Simms is the BEST the league has seen in 30 years. Pinpoint observations. No favortism. No annoying banter. Doesn’t drone on and on like every other. Professional as they come. Sometimes I wish I was a fan of a good AFC team so that I can hear him announce my games instead of Troy and that slob Siragusa.
2) As a coaching candidate, he’d have been AWESOME. He would not have been another one of Al’s flops (i.e. Cable, Kiffin). Phil is smart, learned how to motivate from the best, and tougher at his age now than 90% of the players in the NFL. Players would run through a brick wall for him.
Now…I will disclose that I am a Giants’ fan but I am not a typical homer. (For instance, I know Pierce is horrible on ESPN). However, I’ve seen enough of Phil to know he’d be successful. In fact, I would LOVE it if he took over for Coughlin if ever the ol’ ball coach ever hangs em’ up.
Hey Phil,
Is this before your 2nd or 3rd concussion!
kev86 – I’m can’t log into NYDN to post and its killing me. Any tips?
As a Dolphin fan, I would like to warn the rest of the NFL to stay away from anyone associated with Parcells.
well, Al Davis did make Art Shell the head coach. twice.
i believe Phil Simms.
“Hold your horses Mr. PHD not all Raiders fan are in jail. I’m sure your team have fan who are in jail at this momment as well. if you procliam yourself as an educated person than how can you not pictured that? Show me prove of your education or else it would just be another classless lies. Shame on you and the insitution that graduated your ass. lol”
cytofed, you have just proven my point better than I could have ever possibly imagined. Thank you, and thank your second-grade teacher, for putting in that extra effort with you when you turned twelve.
waxedagain says:
Oct 13, 2011 11:51 AM
Davis also offered Alfred E. Newman the job, and though he turned it down, there is a rumor that he was Davis’ special assistant for a few years.
Good one waxed! Too bad most of the posters don’t know who Alfred E Newman is.
So, if you speak the truth, and say something about the fade your comments aren’t posted?
Phil Simms sounds like Obama, making claims that cannot be verrified, like 2 million jobs saved or created.
A man (or woman more likely) who’s handle is dougydougdoug serving as the blog punctuation and spelling editor. You take yourself far more seriously than anyone else, and that’s not a healthy way to go about your life. Another Raider Nation wannabee. Look that word up in your dictionary, scrub.
So ur the person he’s talking about? Lol
r8rsfan says:
Oct 13, 2011 3:16 PM
A man (or woman more likely) who’s handle is dougydougdoug serving as the blog punctuation and spelling editor. You take yourself far more seriously than anyone else, and that’s not a healthy way to go about your life. Another Raider Nation wannabee. Look that word up in your dictionary, scrub.
0 0
r8rsfan, you bring up a good point, albeit a little misdirected. There really should be some kind of “hall monitor” for this place. As is painfully clear, the Raiders fans (is it really a nation?) need all the help they can get. Granted, they do seem to be doing a fairly good job with transmitting remotely from the festivals of the unemployed, er, “Occupy Wallstreet”.
Even if I wanted to be a Raiders fan, which I really don’t, I simply would be overqualified, as I wasn’t state-raised.
But taking myself too seriously? No way, Jose. Do you realize how fun it is to poke a stick at little animals?
pixelito says:
Oct 13, 2011 1:09 PM
Your’re talking about the same idiot owner who hired Art Shell twice….
TWICE!
Simms will be remembered as being part of one of the great franchises, not the laughing stock of the NFL….
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Art Shell record with the raiders 54 -38 (586%)so he got fired. The great NY Giants franchise under Tom Chokelin, 68-48 (586%), and still employed for his “greatness”.
I would have to say the raiders have a difference of opinion of what great is. btw “great”game against the powerhouse seahawks last week.
How can anyone doubt this story?….its Al Freakin Davis! …anything can happen with this dude
jakek2 says:
Oct 13, 2011 3:05 PM
kev86 – I’m can’t log into NYDN to post and its killing me. Any tips?
No tips but I’ve been keeping the haters in line as much as possible. See you there soon!!!
Al: “yeah, it was nice talking to you about the coaching position. Let me know if you are interested, Bill”
Phil: “Thanks Mr. Davis….but my name is Phil. Phil Simms, former QB of the Giants…..”
Al: “Crap! I though I called BILL Belicheck….heard he was getting canned by the Browns….”
Phil: “Oh, honest mistake….What positions do you have available?”
Al: …..*click*
Hey Phil I seam to remember that back it 1998…errrr…I meant you thought he said Jon Gruden.
Hey Phil I just talked to your Neurosurgeon and he confirmed there are a few gaps in your medium term memory.
First yes I am a giants fan and am a Phil Simms fan
There is no reason to make this up as he has proven himself where it matters
SB MVP He was 22-25 which I am pretty sure is still a record for the SB also he was 14-2 that season how many QB’s go 14-2?
He is one of only 10 NYG to have his number retired thats right one of 10
He is in the teams ring of Honor and he should be in the HOF
He was one of the toughest SOB’s to ever play the game he took hits and gave them back
I recall after a game againest the 9ers he chased Ronnie Lott into the locker room after a few cheap shots.
He did not cry to the Refs he got mad and got even.
As per the norm on this site as he was a NYG he is bashed why does everyone bash the Giants if Wellington Mara was not the man he was there would be no NFL he was the one that got the owners to get equal shares of the TV money but bash the team.
Your team would not exisit today with out the money Wellington Mara gave up
Phil Simms is a part of the greatest team that ever played the game
The Raider fans are in denial about how senile Al Davis was in his last two decades of owning the team.
Hey Phil, I was the Head Coach of the Raider for 10 years…..yeah, I won a Super Bowl too…..come to think of it, I was inducted into the Hall of Fame, yeah that’s right, the Hall of Fame. Maybe Al called Phil to pick his brain, like he often did, but it sounds like Al was saying one thing and Phil was hearing another….and why did it take so long for Simms bring this up? I like Phil, but its time to put down the crack pipe.
sguy2130 says: Oct 13, 2011 11:51 AM
John Madden coached the Raiders, do we really need to question that Phil Simms was offered the job. I think it’s safe to say that John Madden is not the reason why the Raiders were good back then….
Head coach at 32. Won 100 games in ten 14 game seasons. Won a Super Bowl. Never had a losing season. Hall of Fame. Yeah, he sucked.
Come on! PFT you know this is a lie..
I love all the media people all have nice things to say about Coach.. If you asked them 2 weeks ago they would of trashed him but now that he is dead they all say the loved him and ofcourse will make up stories because they know Coach can’t call them out on their lies..Schefter is going to be really happy cause nobody can catch him in lies now
I feel my IQ drop about 20 points when I have to listen to Sims, in that golly-gee accent, tell me that “if you restrict a receiver’s path to the ball, it’s pass interference” as he did in the Pats game over the weekend. Just one of the many deep and insightful nuggets on a week to week basis.
Probably ol’ Al was trying to grease Phil to see if his son was any good and worth spending a draft pick on him.
The Raidah fans are in denial that Al was senile.
There was a time where Al had to scrap the bottom of the coaching barrell because no respectable coach wanted to work for him. No surprise he would give Phil Simms a call.