Phil Simms’ new book Sunday Morning Quarterback is discussed in Richard Sandomir’s column in The New York Times.
Simms’s view of calling football is derived from a belief that what you see on a TV screen is not the truest reflection of what just happened. “TV absolutely can lie,” he writes. Those who do not delve beyond what is immediately before them are doomed to simple analysis.
“I can watch a game on TV,” he said, “but when I put on coaches’ tape, my opinions and thought processes change dramatically.”
It wasn’t until his sixth season that Simms had his epiphany about coaches’ tape. One day, Ron Erhardt, the Giants’ offensive coordinator, showed him tape of the Redskins’ defense.
Erhardt pointed to an outside linebacker, who, he said, kept his feet parallel when Washington was going to rush four down lineman but kept one foot forward for a blitz.
“But that can’t be true all the time,” Simms writes. Yes, Erhardt said, 100 percent of the time.