All the way back in 2003, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected Texas quarterback Chris Simms in the third round of the draft. The expectation was that Simms would be the eventual successor to Bucs starter Brad Johnson, who had won a Super Bowl with the team in 2002 but was by then 35 years old.
Simms was fourth on the depth chart for most of the 2003 season, when the Bucs went 7-9. They brought in Brian Griese to compete with Johnson and Simms during the 2004 season, which ended with the Bucs going 5-11. Tampa let Johnson walk after that season, which meant Simms and Griese were the only game in town heading into the 2005 campaign.
Simms, who had gotten married the previous offseason, went on his honeymoon in March of 2005. (I'm assuming the date based on the timeline established by the following two tweets and the date of his wedding.) While in Italy, Jon Gruden, who was then the Bucs coach, just kept calling him and asking when he was coming back to put in some work at the facility.
So what did Simms do? He cut the honeymoon two days short.
On @PFT_Live, Chris Simms said that while on his honeymoon in Italy, Jon Gruden kept calling and asking when he was coming back. Simms eventually cut the trip short by two days.
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) May 29, 2018
When @CSimmsQB was in Tampa, he told Jon Gruden that he was going on a two week honeymoon in Italy (in March). Ten days later, Chris ended the trip two days early because Gruden was badgering him about getting to the facility to run some plays.
— Rob Guerrera (@StatsOnFire) May 29, 2018
Gruden rewarded Simms by ... starting Griese for the first six games of the year, during which the Bucs went 5-1 but Greise performed at a level that could charitably be described as "average at best." The job was Simms' for the final 10 games of the season. Tampa went 6-4 in those contests and made the playoffs, where they lost to Washington in the first round. Simms started the Bucs' first three games of the following season but performed terribly and lost his job to Bruce Gradkowski. The team cut ties with him after that, but he held on for a few more years as a backup before eventually retiring and starting a career as a member of the media. Gruden's last season coaching the Bucs was in 2008, and he didn't return to the sideline until becoming the Raiders' head coach this offseason.
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