Chris Simms has had a tough life.

Sure, we all would like to have the troubles that come with being the son of a Super Bowl MVP, living in the lap of luxury and going through life as a celebrity of sorts. It's a nice problem to have. But sometimes the only way to solve a problem is to get knocked down a couple of pegs.

That's what Simms will be looking at now that he has fallen from "everyone's star of the future" to "Buccaneers third-round draft pick."

Let's start at the beginning. It seems as good a place as any. Simms, of course, is the son of former Giants quarterback Phil Simms, whose up-and-down career in the Big Apple included both a Super Bowl victory and a public outcry for his head just a few years later. The younger Simms, meanwhile, grew up watching his father get ripped by the media and fans, all while developing into a pretty decent quarterback himself.

	Chris Simms threw 24 TDs and 11 INTs last season for Texas.

He was the USA Today Offensive Player of the Year and a Parade All-American for Ramapo High School in New Jersey in 1999, and he arrived in Austin, Texas, with the kind of expectations that few have felt. Simms was going to be the guy who brought the Longhorns a national championship in a state where football takes a close second to oxygen in importance to most people.

Never mind that the Longhorns already had a star quarterback in Major Applewhite. He eventually became the leading passer in Longhorns history, but that wasn't good enough for some fans. They wanted the Simms name, and they wanted it sooner rather than later.

They got what they wanted.

Applewhite suffered a knee injury in the 1999 Cotton Bowl, and despite the fact he was coming off a year in which he was the Big 12's co-Offensive Player of the Year, he lost his starting job to Simms. The two rotated the job during the 2000 season, and although Applewhite was the more effective of the two, Simms was handed the starting job for 2001. The move polarized the passionate Longhorn fans and put Simms squarely in the crosshairs for criticism.

The knock on Simms was that he couldn't win the big game. He couldn't beat Oklahoma. He never won a national title.

"I was always comfortable with my career at (Texas)," Simms said at the NFL scouting combine. "I felt like I played good, and we won a lot of big games. Everyone always wants to focus on the Oklahoma game, but I felt like I played well. Somewhere along the way it seems to get lost that I led the conference in passing for three years. I'm confident in my abilities as a player."

Expectations, however, can change perception. Simms' plight at Texas reminds me of former Indiana University basketball player Damon Bailey. Bailey first committed with the Hoosiers when he was in the eighth grade, and people expected him to walk on water when he got to Bloomington. But four years and no national title left fans disappointed with his career. This despite scoring 1,700 points and leading IU to 11 wins in the NCAA tournament. Bailey couldn't possibly live up to the expectations that people placed on him, and Simms faced the same situation at Texas.

That's why it will turn out to be a blessing that Simms wasn't selected in the first or second rounds of the draft. If he had gone to a team such as the Bears, Ravens or Panthers, there would have been a lot of pressure to produce immediately. His own history would repeat itself, only this time he would do it in the glare of the entire NFL, not just a state stocked with rabid fans.

Basically, NFL teams let him off the hook by allowing him to slide down the draft board. No, it didn't feel all that good for Simms to wait until the final pick in the third round to hear his name called, but he will look back on Draft Day with fond memories.

Simms goes into a situation in Tampa in which there will be no expectations. There will be no hype preceeding his arrival. Buccaneers fans won't see him as the Second Coming. He will be just another rookie with a familiar name. But best of all, he will be able to learn for a couple of years at the knee of Brad Johnson, a Pro Bowl quarterback who is a consummate professional.

Simms will be tutored by head coach Jon Gruden, who dug up a nearly forgotten player named Rich Gannon and turned him into one of the better quarterbacks in football.

And for the first time in his life, Simms will get to take his time developing. Even growing up, he still was "Phil Simms' son," no matter what he did or where he went. Everyone expected superstardom from the second he stepped onto the playing field. Now that he's with the defending Super Bowl-champion Bucs, his time as a star will come, but it won't be thrust upon him. The past has made him more mature than rookies his age, and that will help going forward as well.

	“	Everyone always wants to focus on the Oklahoma game, but I felt like I played well. Somewhere along the way it seems to get lost that I led the conference in passing for three years. I'm confident in my abilities as a player.”
		— Chris Simms

"I went through two processes where I saw Dad and what he went through in New York," Simms said. "Experiencing the same thing first-hand at Texas definitely took me to another level. It has made me more mature and made me realize what this game, this business, is all about."

For Simms, it's an entirely new game. Nobody will be clamoring for Simms if Johnson makes a mistake. Everybody understands that it is going to take some time for Simms to become a star. Lowered expectations doesn't mean people expect less. They just don't expect it right away.

So what if Simms wasn't a first-rounder? Ryan Leaf was a first-rounder, and we all know how that turned out. But Simms can enjoy life for a change and know that in the future, he will get his chance. He will have the opportunity to be a star in the NFL.

Simms shouldn't expect anything less.

Ken Bikoff is an Associate Editor for Pro Football Weekly.

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