Simms played on with injury
Chris Simms took hit after hit, responding the way football players are taught on Sunday in Tampa, Fla.
He endured the pain and kept on playing.
“In the huddle, he was gasping for air,” Buccaneers receiver Michael Clayton said Monday, a day after the Tampa Bay quarterback’s spleen was removed following a 26-24 loss to the Carolina Panthers.
Simms is out indefinitely, although coach Jon Gruden has not ruled out his playing again this season.
In the meantime, rookie Bruce Gradkowski becomes the starter. Tim Rattay will be the backup.
It was not clear if Simms was hurt on a particular play or if the injury resulted from an accumulation of blows. Gruden felt the most damaging may have occurred late in the fourth quarter when Carolina’s Al Wallace hit Simms on a pass play and landed on top of the quarterback.
Leinart may start for Cards
Matt Leinart in the lineup for Kurt Warner? Could happen.
While Cardinals coach Dennis Green didn’t say the rookie would replace the struggling veteran for Arizona’s next game, he also didn’t dismiss the possibility.
ESPN.com reported the Cardinals were expected to start Leinart against the Falcons in Atlanta on Sunday, citing team sources the Web site did not identify.
Another Bengal busted
Coach Marvin Lewis expects middle linebacker Odell Thurman to be suspended for the rest of the season following his arrest early Monday in Cincinnati on a drunken driving charge, making him the sixth Cincinnati Bengal arrested this year.
Thurman, already serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, could get an additional one-year suspension from the league.
Green thanks fans for support
Kansas City quarterback Trent Green, still recovering from a severe concussion, thanked fans for thousands of expressions of support from around the world.
A Chiefs spokesman said Green had been so moved by the many people who reached out to him he asked permission to post his thank-you on the team’s Web site.
About 3,000 e-mails from all 50 states and such foreign points as Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Ireland and the Cayman Islands, have been received.
How long Green will be sidelined remains unknown. Coach Herm Edwards said he will miss a second straight start this Sunday.
Around the league
Minnesota Vikings rookie quarterback Tarvaris Jackson had minor knee surgery to repair his meniscus and will miss about a month. … Kicker Nate Kaeding signed a six-year contract that will keep him with the San Diego Chargers through 2012.