Tennessee Titans All Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons says incident with Cam Ward was no big deal.
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Tennessee Titans All Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons says incident with Cam Ward was no big deal.
If you are coming off of a Super Bowl win and you’re trying to make another run at a title, it’s probably best that everything is harmonious in training camp. When you are coming off of a season that just earned you the first-overall draft pick, maybe you’d like to see some fire.
The Tennessee Titans fall into the latter category. And while All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons definitely showed some gumption in Monday’s practice, his shove of quarterback Cam Ward was not appreciated.
ESPN’s Turron Davenport described the incident:
“Ward threw a touchdown pass to Calvin Ridley toward the end of practice and went to celebrate,” Davenport wrote. “The rookie quarterback stopped and gave Simmons a shove before doing his trademark “Zombieland” celebration in front of him. Simmons reacted with a two-hand push to Ward’s facemask, and the offensive line ran to Ward’s defense.”
Left tackle Don Moore, Jr. was asked afterwards if it’s okay if someone hits the quarterback.
“Absolutely not,” Moore said. “That goes without saying.”
It’s probably safe to say that if an undrafted free agent did something like that they’d be cut.
Jeffery Simmons responds to the blowback
Initially, Simmons took to X to let everyone know that everything between the two teammates was fine.
“lol yea y’all doing way too much! It’s practice, it’s football!,” Simmons posted. “Sh*t happens between the lines! But y’all letting these reporters blow up something that happened at practice says a lot! Trust me, me and 1 is good! #TitanUp”
I bleeped that word out to protect your ears.
On Tuesday, Simmons addressed the topic with reporters even though he clearly didn’t want to.
“Hands off the quarterback,” Simmons said. “Everybody on this team know. Everybody in the locker room know. I love the hell out of my guys. Sh*t happened at practice. You know, people on the outside, you guys, y’all blowing [are] it up. Shouldn’t get blowed up.
“At training camp, tempers flare. Move on and end that day. You know, can’t touch the quarterback. They’re the same thing. If we at joint practice and somebody touch our quarterback, trust me, I’m gonna be the first one in there. So I respect the hell out of our offense for having their quarterback back — having our quarterback back.”
Jeffery Simmons says it’s football and people get upset
Simmons further explained the situation and made it sound like the media is making more out of it than they should. For what it’s worth, the media didn’t really appreciate it.
“But at the end of the day, you know, it’s football,” Simmons continued. “We, you know — offensive line, defensive line, trenches. It’s hot. Tempers flare. We all are tied. At the end of the day, we family. We moved on from it. We’re not gonna keep talking about it each and every day. It happened yesterday, we came back to work as a team. Yesterday, we left it on the field. Came back, got the corrections, moved on. So I’m done talking about it. That’s it. Any football questions, you know, that’s that.”
One reporter immediately responded with, “So hands off the quarterback. You put your hands on the quarterback. And it’s our fault?”
“Anybody got a football question?,” Simmons quipped.
“That’s a football question,” the reporter responded.
Moving on!
Head coach Brian Callahan did his best to downplay the incident, which led to Simmons being taken off the field to calm down.
“It was a training camp push and shove and a little bit of loud barking, and that was pretty much it for me,” Callahan said. “It’s late August, and we’re ready to go play some real football.”
I might be with Simmons on this one as it sounds like it was what he described and it’s been handled internally.