Dec. 18, 2002

By Kevin Goheen

Walk through the players' parking lot at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati and you'll find an eclectic range of automobiles. Their owners are professional football players, men of considerable monetary wealth who have the luxury of being able to afford almost any kind of means of transportation they like.

There's a couple of Hummers scattered in with a few Cadillac Escalades, a Jaguar and several Mercedes Benzes. Tucked into one spot is a curious sports utility vehicle: a 1998 Land Rover with North Carolina plates. By contrast to the ocean of brand new, pricey cars, the Land Rover is a refreshingly modest oddity.

Then again, so is its owner. Brian Simmons is one of the highest paid players on the Cincinnati Bengals roster but the former Tar Heel linebacker is a rare breed in today's professional sports world-he doesn't need to point to or shout out about himself to be noticed. He lets his play on the field and his quiet, unassuming lifestyle off of it say everything that needs to be said.

In that manner, Brian Simmons is no different than from the days when he was growing up in New Bern, N.C., or from when he spent his college days at UNC earning a sociology degree. He understands the importance of doing things the right way. He understands what he can and can't control and goes about his daily business doing his best to be in control of the things he can.

That's probably why he has no plans to switch away from the Land Rover, one of the first purchases he made after being selected by the Bengals with the 17th overall pick in the 1998 NFL draft. A six-year contract extension signed during training camp this past summer would certainly allow him to buy a new vehicle. It's just not in his personality.

"Football is what I do and not what I am," said Simmons, whose wife Rachel was his high school girlfriend. The couple has a 6-year-old daughter named Brianna. Mention either of the two names to Simmons and an immediate smile springs from his face.

"I come to work and I play football. I love the game but it's not my life. It's a big part of my life but it's not who I am. You have to separate them. Football is part of the reason that I live my life and the way that I'm able to live it. But, I'm going to be who I'm going to be regardless of what I'm doing. I think when you get caught up and let football and how you live get combined, that's when guys get into trouble."

One thing you won't see is Simmons' name in print for the wrong reasons. You will see it every Monday listed prominently in the post-game stats. Simmons has been either first or second on the Bengals in tackles in four of his five seasons. The only exception was in 2000 when he tore the lateral meniscus in his right knee in the opening game, an injury that ended his year prematurely.

Simmons has suffered through nearly four times as many losses in his career at Cincinnati than he did in five seasons (1993-97) in the North Carolina program.

The Bengals are in the midst of a 12-year streak in which they have not had a winning record, and in Simmons' five seasons they are 18-57, including the fifth 1-10 start in the franchise's history this season. At UNC-including his redshirted freshman season of 1993-the Tar Heels went 46-15 under former head coach Mack Brown. In Simmons' junior and season seasons of 1996 and '97, UNC won 21 of 24 games, finished ranked in the top 10 of the final Associated Press national poll and won back-to-back Gator Bowls.

The only blemish in the 11-1 season of '97 was a 20-3 setback against Florida State in front of a school-record crowd of 62,000 at Kenan Stadium. The Tar Heels beat Clemson at Death Valley for the first time since Lawrence Taylor was wreaking havoc in 1980. The defense finished ranked No. 2 overall in the nation and seven players from that team were taken in the 1998 draft. Another, center Jeff Saturday, was not drafted but is now starting for the Indianapolis Colts.

Besides Simmons, defensive linemen Greg Ellis (Dallas, No. 8) and Vonnie Holliday (Green Bay, No. 19) were also first round choices. All three were captains as seniors, but Simmons had his own way of getting his message across.

"He'd just say 'Pick it up,' and they'd listen," said Brown, now the head coach at Texas. "We weren't sure how he'd handle the transition from high school to college. He's so soft-spoken, you weren't sure if he got it at first. He did."

At New Bern High School, Simmons was awarded the school's Outstanding Citizenship Award. At North Carolina, he was one of 15 members of the Leadership Committee. This year, the March of Dimes chose him to be their honorary spokesman for the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky WalkAmerica 2002. It's not news that makes big headlines, and that's just fine with Simmons.

"We had a lot of student-athletes who were on the edge of going the wrong way," said Terry Fuhrman, the assistant principal at New Bern. Fuhrman is in his 19th year at the school as a teacher, coach and administrator and said the only problem he ever had with Simmons is that he went to North Carolina instead of North Carolina State, Fuhrman's alma mater.

Just a little salt in Fuhrman's one wound: The Wolfpack never beat North Carolina in the time Simmons was at Chapel Hill.

"He was never in my office (for discipline)," said Fuhrman. "It's not that he wasn't ever around bad situations, it was that he knew when to get up and leave if something bad was happening."

Simmons was elected to New Bern's Hall of Fame last year. He's one of 18 former Tar Heels whose jersey numbers hang retired on the upper deck façade of Kenan Stadium. The Bengals knew exactly what kind of player and person they were getting when they selected the demure Simmons. Four picks prior to taking Simmons, Cincinnati had drafted a fiery linebacker from Auburn named Takeo Spikes.

It was around these two players the Bengals planned on building their defense. Little by little Cincinnati plugged a hole here and a hole there, but the linebackers are what would epitomize the defense. Last season, the building resulted in a No. 9 league ranking. The Bengals were 6-10 but hopes were high that 2002 would be the season to end the losing because in seven of those losses, the defense allowed 20 points or fewer.

Things haven't been so good this season. In a 180-degree reversal, the Bengals have only once failed to give up fewer than 20 points in a game in 2002. Injuries and the permeation of a "Here we go again" attitude that can only come with 12 years of losing quickly overcame the Bengals this season. Still, Simmons doesn't regret his decision to re-sign with the team.

"Irregardless of what's happening this year I think we're going to get it turned around," said Simmons. "I've been here long enough that I want to be a part of that. I want to be on those teams. Also I have a family. I had to look at the money and I couldn't afford to turn it down.

"Maybe I could have gotten more in free agency but I know I could have gotten a whole lot less also. That's the way I look at it. I could've gotten a little more, maybe, but it wasn't a given. On the other hand, if something happens, you've got to look at what you're losing. The two weren't even close."

He didn't say so, but another reason Simmons re-signed is Spikes.

The two are yin and yang in many ways. Simmons, 27, is the family man while Spikes, 25, is a bachelor. Spikes doesn't speak loudly but he will speak up forcibly when it's needed, while Simmons will simply go out and do his job each day and tell his teammates to "Pick it up." Simmons returned to North Carolina for his senior season, even though he had earned All-America honors as a junior and would have been a first-rounder if he had entered the draft. Spikes did leave Auburn after his junior campaign.

The pair first met at the NFL Draft Combine in Indianapolis in 1998, a gathering of the top football prospects in the nation. It's a place where players are poked, prodded, mentally quizzed and run through the wringer as teams finalize their draft plans. When they arrived in Cincinnati for their first minicamp in May of '98, the friendship was solidified.

Both ended up missing one day of training camp their rookie season over contract squabbles. Both ended up signing five-year deals. Because Simmons is now signed, it's likely Spikes will also return to the Bengals because the team will be able to place either its franchise or transition tag on him, giving them the right to match any offer Spikes might receive in free agency or receive compensation if he signs with another team.

If the Bengals do find a way to break their losing ways, it would be hard to imagine either Spikes or Simmons not being a part of it. Each is entering what should be the prime of their careers and, again this season, it's Spikes and Simmons who lead the Bengals in tackles.

"Some of the things that I'm quick to go off on, he's kind of like the mild-mannered guy where he's able to sit back and keep his cool about certain things and keeps me complacent," said Spikes. "There's a lot of stuff that burns you up, but he sits back and thoroughly thinks through a lot of stuff. It's just the mental aspect on the field and off the field.

"He's a good guy as a person. You don't meet too many people like him, that are men."

Don't mistake Simmons' private persona as being aloof. Inside, he's as passionate about football as Spikes demonstrates on the exterior. He's just as passionate about his personal life, his family and his charitable endeavors. He's just not apt to show off that passion.

He never has, and that's fine with him. He knows when his workday is done he can climb into that Land Rover of his and head home.

"That's the good thing about it win, lose or draw," said Simmons. "When you come home you're daddy and husband. You can kind of forget about it for a little bit and play your role there."

Kevin Goheen has covered the Cincinnati Bengals since 1999 as their beat writer for the Cincinnati Post.