Chris Simms clarifies Texas '$100 handshakes' comments: 'It was cool'
Former college quarterback Chris Simms took to the radio to clarify comments he made on Thursday about receiving $100 handshakes at Texas.
On Thursday, former two-time All-Big 12 quarterback Chris Simms made some waves while filling in as a co-host on CBSSports Radio's Tiki and Tierney, noting that during his time at Texas, he "may have gotten a few $100 handshakes every now and then to sign some autographs for alumni."
Simms specifically mentioned that no one, including anyone the Longhorns program itself, paid him outside of those handshakes but "there may have been cash going around to some other players ... I'm not going to deny that."
During the show on Friday, Simms felt it necessary to clarify his comments from the previous day.
"It was unbelievable [my comments] gained that much steam," he said. "To clarify it, it's pretty simple. Yes, did I receive a $100 handshake when I was at Texas? Yes, I did. Not once, but twice, to be honest with you.
"It was not prearranged like, 'Hey, can you come here and sign some autographs for me and I'll give you money?' No, this was outside of the University of Texas campus. This was not on campus.
"The city of Austin is full of Texas alumni. Guys I would see around, at a restaurant or whatever it would be, this just happened to be, yes, a Texas alumni at a restaurant, had a few jerseys. 'Hey Chris, can you come over and sign a few jerseys for me?' I had met him and his son before.
"And of course, yeah, I signed the jerseys -- not even worried about being paid -- and then I got a $100 handshake, and I thought it was really cool.
"But to imply that Texas had anything to do with this, that's so crazy."
Simms, 34, also made sure to note that his situation is not even comparable to that of Georgia running back Todd Gurley, who was allegedly was paid significantly more money under the table for autograph sessions, knowing full well that he was signing a large quantity of autographs for the specific purpose of being paid.
"This just in: There's $100 handshakes going on at every Division I school in the nation -- college [football], basketball. ... It's going on everywhere; it's part of really human nature in general.
"I hope I didn't get Texas in trouble because certainly Texas had nothing to do with that. Mack Brown ran as clean a program as you could possibly run.”
He added: "I was the starting quarterback in Texas. My last name 'Simms.' I was the No. 1 player in the nation coming out of high school. I was having some fun down there and of course, at that time period at that school in that city I was 'somewhat of a big deal' as they say."
As CBSSports.com college football writer Tom Fornelli wrote on Thursday: Simms wasn't the first to take money -- or admit to doing so after the fact -- and he certainly hasn't been the last. Try as they might, the NCAA is never going to be able to keep stuff like this from happening. There are a lot worse things a player can be doing than taking $100 here and there for some autographs.
Here is the audio from the show that aired on Friday.
















