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What’s to become of Phil Simms?
Phil Simms future as a broadcaster is uncertain with the announcement of Tony Romo joining CBS.  Scott Halleran/Getty Images

What’s to become of Phil Simms?

Going into the NFL off-season, the presumption was that there would be a high-stakes contest for the services of Tony Romo in 2017. Few guessed that it would be broadcast networks that would be the ones vying for him.

When the market for him as a quarterback wasn’t as robust as Romo figured, his health suddenly became more of an inducement for retirement. It also helped that multiple TV networks has stepped forward with significant interest in a lucrative on-air job, the kind of dream post-football landing spot reserved for stars with charisma.

Some in the media were disconcerted by Romo being elevated to the top CBS announcing immediately upon arrival. But it’s fair to think that might have been a plum CBS offered to beat out other networks for a star player who might have been on the fence about playing. Romo was one of the highest-profile players in the NFL, even if he had missed most of the last few season. CBS saw an opportunity to replace a much-maligned former quarterback with one 25 years his junior, whose exploits are more familiar to today’s younger fans.

And there’s still a matter of uncertainty. Even during his introductory press conference on Tuesday with CBS, Romo wouldn’t fully dismiss the prospect of returning to football.

"I wish I could tell you unequivocally, 100 percent, for the rest of my life, I'll never play any sports at all. I don't envision coming back. But I've also seen enough things, you know, from (Nick Saban's) 'I'm not going to Alabama' to (Brett Favre's) 'I'm done playing football,' that happen in life.

Do I envision coming back and playing football? Absolutely not. I'm committed to CBS. I'm going to be there. ... I'm sure I will (get a call). There's not enough quarterbacks that can win 12 games in the NFL anyway. I do feel like, for me, the reality is a lot can happen. Right now, I'm telling you that I don't think it would be that hard of a decision."

There’s juuuuust enough equivocation in there to completely rule out a team like, say, the Raiders calling after Derek Carr goes down late in a promising season. They’re desperate and willing to shell out to preserve the hope of a championship run, even if by that point it will have been more than a full year since Romo was taking regular snaps in a game. CBS wouldn’t be thrilled, but they’d be fine. They have a large enough stable of announcers to plug someone else in should Romo renege and go chase that emergency gig.

That person would be Phil Simms. The long-time announcer, of course, isn’t going to just sit around unoccupied most of the most for that possibility to play out. The Tiffany Network has plenty of options for Simms for 2017.

The obvious choice would be to just bump him down to one of their other announcing teams for Sunday slates. That’s easy enough. But then fans will still complain about him there. Not as many as during a late afternoon national game, mind you, but still a sizeable amount.

Perhaps what’s needed is a little change. So fans have a chance to see Phil in a slightly different light.

- Put him at the end of "60 Minutes." It’s been awhile since the TV news magazine had someone to ramble semi-coherently about sundry topics to close out the show. It’s time for Phil Simms to be the new Andy Rooney. Sure, he’s nowhere near as curmudgeonly but it’ll be that familiar concept for a segment no really likes or understands.

- Have Simms sit in a dunk tank chair during the Sunday morning panel show and let Bart Scott hurl bean bags at the target every time he gets upset about a topic. I’m definitely watching.

- An occasional role on "Two Broke Girls" where he dispenses homespun wisdom to the titular characters, like, “You know, when you start getting money, you won’t be broke anymore!”

- Phil Simms works a one-man booth for Thursday Night Football. Sure, this isn’t much of a departure for Simms, but it’s time to really lean into the awfulness of TNF. That’s the best way to kill it off. And, who knows, maybe some will tune in just for the horrid spectacle.

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