Among football fans, defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons has become a household name and has the honors to go with it – a two-time first-team All-SEC at Mississippi State and a two-time second-team All-Pro and three-time Pro Bowl pick for the Tennessee Titans.

He is two years into a four-year, $94 million contract.

Yet before there was fame, there was infamy.

By the early spring of 2016, Simmons seemed almost guaranteed a direct path to major college football and the NFL.

Then came the afternoon of March 24, 2016, when Simmons was captured on cell phone video pummeling a woman who was already fighting with Simmons’ sister outside the Mayfair Apartments in Macon. It was an act of naked violence that led to a conviction for simple assault and threatened to upend his college football career before it even started.

The video quickly went viral, and the condemnation was as quick as it was predictable.

There were calls for MSU to pull its scholarship. Instead, MSU suspended him for a single game, which triggered sharp criticism from every direction, including The Dispatch, which gave MSU a thorn for the slap-on-the-wrist response. “It could then be inferred that MSU regards an act of violence against a woman as a minor offense. That’s absolutely the wrong message to send. A longer suspension seems justified.”

Simmons apologized, saying his conduct wasn’t a reflection of who he was. It did little to stem the criticism. Actions, not words, do that.

He served his suspension and played three seasons at MSU without a hint of scandal.

Then it was on to the NFL, where Simmons was a first-round draft pick.

Given that background, it would have been easy enough – even understandable – if Simmons had left his hometown of Macon and never looked back.

That’s not what he did, though. Almost from the moment he signed his first contract, Simmons turned his thoughts to his hometown, renovating the Noxubee County football field house that now bears his name, hosting a “Fun Day” event in Macon and hosting football camps, first in Starkville, now in Macon. To kick off this year’s football camp, 10 campers have been randomly selected to take part in a shopping spree at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Columbus. It’s the third year that Simmons has treated kids with free merchandise. He’s hosted similar shopping sprees in Nashville and has twice been the Titans’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, an award that’s given for off-field work in the community.

Simmons donated $75,000 to the Starkville Parks and Recreation Department in 2022 to build a turf field at the Starkville Sportsplex, provided meals for utility workers during a winter storm that swept through the Golden Triangle in 2023 and, just this week, joined health officials in cutting the ribbon on a naloxone vending machine at the medical mall in Jackson. The vending machines provide free naloxone, which rapidly reverses an opioid overdose.

When Simmons first began giving back to his hometown, it may have been perceived as an effort to redeem himself from that ugly episode in 2016.

But his continued generosity reveals that it is a function of his love for his hometown and home state.

The video of that ugly moment is still out there, of course, but it’s no longer the burden of shame it once was. It is what Simmons has done since then that tells us we should not always be quick to judge someone based on their worst moment.

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].

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