Chris Simms drew the ire of Dolphins fans when he picked a bizarre time to take a stand against Twitter trolls.
The NFL analyst and ex-quarterback co-hosted “Pro Football Talk Live” with Mike Florio on Thursday when the discussion turned to Tua Tagovailoa’s donation to a GoFundMe page for a Miami superfan who died in a car accident.
Tagovailoa gave $10,000 to the family of Eric Carmona, a Dolphins fan who supported the quarterback on social media and also happened to take some shots at Simms along the way.
Simms called the whole situation a “horrible thing, a horrible accident” before adding a small jab at Carmona.
“He obviously was a huge Tua fan, also a huge guy that trolled me a lot on Twitter,” Simms said before Florio interjected with a loud “good.”
Florio attempted to move the conversation along and just acknowledge the passion of sports fans.
The journalist told Simms that if he didn’t have the platform or football career that he ended up having, Simms might have been a vocal fan similar to Carmona.
Nevertheless, Simms didn’t appear to be buying into it.
“This is a deep subject, and I think it’s societal, and I won’t go into it ’cause I’m only going to get myself in trouble,” Simms said before another quick retort from Florio.
“It’s not that deep. Sports fans love their teams,” Florio replied.
But then Simms appeared to slam Tua’s donation to Carmona’s family because of the negativity the fan showed toward Simms.
“We’re also setting an example of like, hey, here’s money to a guy who’s very negative too. That’s all I’m saying,” Simms responded.
Nevertheless, Simms did try to clarify his point before the show went to a break.
“It was tragic and I want to make it clear, RIP to him and his family,” Simms said. “Like clearly. I do, I love passionate fans I do. There’s no doubt about it, alright, so I just want to make sure that’s clear.”
A podcast version of Thursday’s show cut out the back-and-forth between Florio and Simms, but the original clip remained on social media.
Dolphins supporters on Twitter were livid with Simms, with one account going as far as to call his comments “disgusting.”
Another tweeted that Simms “was out of line to put it mildly.”
Carmona, 30, died on his way to work last week, according to the GoFundMe set up by his family.
He was a father of four and a Navy veteran, the page said.
“I just wanted his wife and kids to know we’re praying for them and thinking of them,” Tagovailoa told reporters of his donation.
The Dolphins quarterback also promoted the GoFundMe on his Twitter account and said, “If you can help at all, either through their GoFundMe or with a prayer, it would mean a lot.”
Other members of the Dolphins organization also donated to Carmona’s family, including Tyreek Hill, who gave $7,000, while team president Tom Garfinkel contributed $1,000.
Linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel also donated $1,000 to the fundraiser.
