The folks over at ProFootballTalk.com had their ears peeled Wednesday night, as Phil Simms told viewers of Showtime's "Inside the NFL" that former Raiders owner Al Davis spoke with him at one point about becoming his head coach.
"He did offer me to become a Raiders coach, and to be their head coach," Simms recalled. "I got interviewed over the phone for many, many hours."
Simms, the former Giants quarterback, didn't provide a timeline for his conversation with Davis, whose death Saturday has generated more than a few poignant memories of the renegade team owner.
We can't help but wonder if this occurred close to when Davis spoke to then-Jets defensive coordinator Bill Belichick about the role, back in the late 1990s. But Simms doesn't harbor any regret about passing on the job.
"Of course I turned it down," he said. "I'm glad I did because how bitter would I be if I got hired and fired a few times?"
Simms' revelation emerges from left field, but it's clear Davis was a man who operated in the shadows, driven to return his franchise to glory. Unless the Raiders release a Watergate-like audio history of Davis' telephone conversations, we're left to wonder about the rest.