Sullivan: Super moment for Simms father-son duo

This time 30 years ago, Phil Simms was winning the Super Bowl for the Giants, the anniversary of one of the most memorable, indelible moments in Giants franchise history passing just this past week.

This time last year, Phil Simms was calling the Super Bowl for CBS, logging yet another entry in the post-playing career that has defined him as much as his No. 11 jersey ever did, as an established and respected NFL television analyst.

But come this time on Sunday, Phil Simms will experience the Super Bowl in a way he never has before.

As a dad.

In one of the many New Jersey stories connected to this year’s game between the New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons, one of the most heartwarming will occur within the Simms family, where Phil and Diana’s youngest child, son Matt, will be on the field. A quarterback on the Falcons’ practice squad, Matt is making an appearance that even older brother Chris, a seven-year NFL veteran now well into his own career as a broadcaster, never made.

“I talked to my son [Monday] night, and I’m sure he gets tired of hearing about me and his other brother — I know he does — and I don’t blame him,” Phil said in a phone call this week. “I said to him, ‘We’re coming for the game, of course. I’m going to sit in the stands, and I can’t wait to watch you warm up.’ He laughed and said, ‘OK.’ But I said, ‘I’ll be there. When you go out, I’ll be right up there in those stands and I’m going to watch every throw you have in warm-ups.’ That’ll be his game. After we talk about the game for a few minutes, we’ll most likely talk about the warm-ups more than we talk about the game.

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“That’s his Super Bowl, and it’s mine, too, for him.”

Matt, the onetime Jets and Bills quarterback under coach Rex Ryan, won’t be in position to match what his dad so memorably did back on Jan. 26, 1987. Phil’s record-setting MVP performance — 22 of 25 passes, including 10 in a row in the second half of a 39-20 win over Denver — did more than earn him the first commercial airing of the now-famous “I’m going to Disney World” declaration. It showed the world what the blond-haired, strong-armed quarterback could do, that his offense could carry the Giants just as much as the fierce defensive havoc of Lawrence Taylor or the playbook genius of coach Bill Parcells could. But if it set a standard that would endure as almost impossible for his sons to match, they sure don’t seem to mind.

“He’s one of the few great players that needs to be in the Hall of Fame, if you ask me,” Matt said last week from Atlanta. “I did think about that this week a little bit, how special it is. Although I won’t be playing or part of the game physically, just the fact that I am my father’s son and I was lucky enough to work my way up to the pinnacle of my sport, this is a sport we love and is part of my family, so it’s special to be part of a game that he made once a day for himself.”

Matt, 28, hasn’t yet gotten a chance to make such an NFL day for himself, but if he likened his time with the Jets and Bills to getting an undergraduate degree in football, he says two years in Atlanta are his master's, thanks to the influence of Falcons quarterback and presumptive league MVP Matt Ryan, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan (one of Chris’ closest friends) and head coach Dan Quinn, a fellow Jersey native. That’s why this game doesn’t feel so much like a destination for him, but more like a starting point, one he hopes leads to a chance to make an opening day roster next year.

“This year, for whatever reason, I never got that phone call. But I’ve been enjoying being a Falcon,” Matt said. “Am I upset I never got an opportunity this season? Maybe, but at the same time, what an experience to be part of a winning culture in the NFL, part of a winning culture for the first time since I was at Don Bosco [he played college ball at Louisville and Tennessee]. It shows we take winning for granted at Don Bosco. It’s a special thing to do.

“I think back to when I was with the Jets, and I’d be asked, ‘What do you think: Should you be the starter?’ and I’m saying, ‘I’m really happy to make the team. I’m not going to demand the starting job. A few weeks ago I was just happy to be here.’ I know I’m talented. Over the years I feel like I’ve become that player that I envisioned myself to be, when I watch the game and practice and do other things, I can take it to that next level. I have that innate instinct that it’s that time to show people you can be that guy.

“Honestly, I’m not thinking about that at all. Right now it’s Super Bowl week. I’m just extremely fortunate to be a part of that. What lies ahead in the future, I’m excited about that.”

What his dad did in the past is pretty good, too.

Though Phil was born and raised in Kentucky, playing his college ball at little-known Morehead State, the family long ago planted its roots in North Jersey, with the kids, Chris, Deirdre and Matt, growing up in Franklin Lakes, attending Ramapo High and Don Bosco, with their dad a neighborhood fixture not only at games across all sports, but in helping any area kids looking to improve their skills. In making New Jersey his home, Phil has also maintained strong ties with a loyal, deep fan base. As part of two Super Bowl-winning teams (Phil was hurt while Jeff Hostetler finished off what he had started in 1990), he does not get through a day in public without someone bringing up the ’86 season.

And he loves it.

“When I played in the old Giants Stadium, the fans, they must have loved it, because you were right on top of the field,” Phil recalled. “I can literally almost turn around on the bench and touch the fans behind us. And after 15 years, I could look up in the stands and see people, not that I would talk to them, but God, I’ve seen that guy sit there my whole career. And it seems like everybody there had one of those shiny blue Giants jackets on, too.”

Much has changed across 30 years. A new stadium with personal seat licensing fees. A growing family that now includes grandchildren. An NFL more popular than ever. A week of Super Bowl hype unthinkable back then that now features Monday night’s prime-time media event.

“We had a media day — it was at a high school stadium,” Simms said, the mental image of his uniform hanging on a hook in a locker stall making him laugh. “And I don’t know, I’m going to say I probably had a crowd of about 10 people around me, and I just sat down and talked to them and it was very casual. We actually had a lot of laughs. One reporter from Miami, Edwin Pope, he asked me, ‘What would you have done if John Elway had come to Morehead?’ And I said, ‘Well, he would have had to sit behind me and wait for me to graduate.’

“He loved it, he wrote it, no big deal, everybody thinks it’s funny. But of course if you say that now and it would be a swirling controversy, ‘Simms disses Elway.’ ”

The impact at the time was different. But the impact over time has endured. Enough that Matt credits it for his entry to the world.

“I like to tell everybody I’m the Super Bowl baby. They won, my dad was MVP, so they were like, ‘Let’s have another kid!’ They won in January 1987 and I was born in 1988.”

E-mail: sullivan@northjersey.com