Phil Simms

The all-time passing leader of the New York Giants is Phil Simms, a battle-scarred veteran of fifteen NFL seasons, who fought back from injury and adversity to become one of football's most respected quarterbacks. Drafted out of tiny Morehead State University in the first round of the 1979 draft by the then-struggling Giants, Phil Simms showed promise as a rookie, but his potential seemed unlikely to be fulfilled as injuries forced him to sit out at least part of four successive seasons. Even though he set club passing records in his first full season as a starter and, in the 1986 season, won most-valuable-player honors for both the season and Super Bowl XXI, in which he led the Giants to their first championship in thirty years, Simms was never fully embraced by the notoriously fickle Giant fans. A gritty, blue-collar quarterback whose tenacity, disciplined work habits, and fearless composure earned him the admiration of his teammates and the respect of head coach Bill Parcells, Phil Simms was again leading New York to the playoffs when, in 1990, an injury forced him to the sidelines, where he watched as his substitute, Jeff Hostetler, guided the Giants to their second Super Bowl win in five seasons.

Phil Simms and Hostetler competed for the starting job in 1991 and 1992, a period of disarray during which the Giants compiled a two-season record of fourteen and eighteen under the indecisive tutelage of Parcells's successor, Ray Handley. In 1993 a new head coach, Dan Reeves, returned the offense to Simms, who unexpectedly took the team to the playoffs with a Pro Bowl season. "Some quarterbacks can just drive Cadillacs," Bill Parcells said to Frank Litsky of the New York Times (December 2, 1990). "But I think Simms can drive a Ford, too. When the surrounding cast is sufficient, a lot of quarterbacks can drive the car. But there are only a few who can do it whether the supporting cast is sufficient or not. And I think he can do that. When he's gone, people will say about the Giants' quarterback, He's good, but he's no Phil Simms.'" Despite his strong performance in 1993, Simms was dropped from the team in June 1994, partly because of the new NFL salary cap limiting the total amount a team can spend on its players, leaving two untested quarterbacks to face the inevitable comparisons. Phil Simms has since signed on as a sportscaster with ESPN.