Two-time Super Bowl champion and former CBS Sports broadcaster Phil Simms will join NBC Sports as an in-game analyst for three Big Ten college football games during the upcoming season. NBC Sports announced Simms’ return in a press release on August 19.
According to the announcement, “Phil Simms, Super Bowl XXI MVP and 15-year NFL quarterback, will return to NBC Sports three decades after making his NBC broadcast debut on NFL games in 1995, to serve as a game analyst on multiple Big Ten football games exclusively on Peacock this fall. (…) Simms will be on the call for NBC Sports’ college football season-opener on Friday, Aug. 29, as the Illinois Fighting Illini host the Western Illinois Leathernecks at 7:30 p.m. ET exclusively on Peacock. (…) The following weekend, Simms will call Miami (OH) visiting Rutgers on Saturday, Sept. 6, at 3:30 p.m. ET on Peacock. Simms will also serve as the game analyst on a third game this season, which will be announced at a later date. Simms will call each of the Peacock-exclusive games alongside NBC Sports play-by-play voice Paul Burmeister.”
Simms began his broadcasting career with ESPN before joining NBC and then CBS in 1998.
Simms is returning to television shortly after he and fellow former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason were announced to be leaving CBS Sports’ NFL coverage ahead of the 2024 season’s shakeup. For this coming season, former NFL quarterback Matt Ryan—who retired last month—will move from in-game coverage to join James Brown, Bill Cowher and J.J. Watt for studio analysis.
Simms shared his view of his departure from CBS: “Nobody asked me, talked to me or anything like that (…) I waited for I guess over a couple months to see what CBS was doing, and I think the longer you wait, the more you know it’s not gonna work out in your favor.”
