We are in the midday break between practices here on Day 4 of Buccaneer training camp at Disney’s Wide World of Sports. The morning practice was in pads and was only as eventful as you consider the developing Chris Simms story to be.
Simms clearly is not all the way back from having his spleen removed early last season, and that is only so far as his mechanics go. Now, he also has what the Bucs are calling a “sore elbow”. Reports varied widely yesterday to the point that GM Bruce Allen felt the need to call an emergency press conference to refute stories that Simms may even be suffering from a condition called “proprioception”, which has to do with “the body's ability to sense its position through the assimilation of information from millions of cells”, and yeah I looked that up. Allen spent the majority of the gathering being his usual dodgy self.
It turns out the whole proprioception thing may have been somewhat of a stretch, but there is no doubt from simply watching Simms throw that he is dealing with physical issues beyond the normal realm of “being a football player”, which is how Allen tried to play it off yesterday. Simms, as of now, is behind not only Jeff Garcia but also likely Luke McCown and Bruce Gradkowski, although Jon Gruden refused to list an actual depth chart at quarterback when asked about it after the morning practice.
I will say that you can tell Gruden is getting annoyed with all of the commotion being made by the media regarding Simms. Whether that’s because Simms’ condition isn’t all that big of a deal after all or because Simms is no longer in Gruden’s plans to begin with depends on your gut feeling. Mine is that Simms isn’t a part of the team’s 2007 plans.
For his part, Simms, who is and always has been one of the most stand-up guys you’ll encounter, spoke to the media after the morning practice. Upbeat, as he always his, Simms acknowledged that while his arm is sore and he isn’t where he wants to be, it’s no more serious than just that. He said he wasn’t even familiar with the term “proprioception” until he heard it for the first time himself yesterday.
There is an afternoon practice scheduled, but as I type this lighting is flashing above and all around, so we’ll see if the team ends up getting out there or not. I’ll have more to say on the Sports Desk coming up from 6-7 pm this afternoon live from the Gaylord Palms Hotel and Resort, just down the street from the practice fields.
-Bobby Fenton
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