For football prospects, it’s safe to say that the NFL Draft is the biggest day of their lives at that point. It’s the day when all their hard work finally pays off with an NFL team taking a chance on them and changing their lives forever.
Understandably, it’s an exciting time for everyone involved. Yet, for one All-Pro, it served as a reminder of a mistake he wanted to move on from. But ESPN wouldn’t allow it.
Jeffery Simmons Remembers How ESPN Did Him Dirty
On draft day, usually a prospect’s football highlights get played on screen. But back in 2019, for one Mississippi State defensive tackle, it meant revisiting arguably the worst day of his life.
That’s when Jeffery Simmons, who had been widely viewed as a first-round prospect, saw ESPN play a clip of when he got in a brutally physical alteration back in high school.
Instead of feeling widespread jubilation, Simmons and his family felt they had been done dirty. Teams were already fully aware of his past, so why did ESPN feel the need to stir up old emotions? At least, that’s how Simmons’ camp felt during what should have been a time of celebration.
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Now, years later, Simmons re-lived that moment during a recent appearance on “The Pivot Podcast.”
“It was hard,” Simmons said. “It still kills me when guys are getting ready to get drafted and people bring up old stuff because I went through that. It went from an exciting moment in that room with my family to turning off the TV, because here goes the video all of a sudden… I mean, I got the call. I mean, we were waiting on my name to get called. But then boom. They go to ESPN putting up this video. Reason why I kind of still got a little beef with ESPN.”
While Simmons cannot run from his past, he felt the timing could have been better.
“But that’s supposed to be a moment of happiness, and it still… I’ll never forget my draft night, but I never forget that happening,” Simmons added. “That happened when I was in high school before I even graduated high school… But it was like, now is this what people really about to think of me? … I didn’t know how even the Tennessee Titans was going to accept me.”
Of course, from ESPN’s perspective, they were just informing the public about an incident from Simmons’ past. It wasn’t personal; it’s just part of how they tell stories. Still, it’s a moment that the Titans’ First-Team All-Pro defensive tackle will never forget.
