NFL fans can expect to see broadcast changes in CBS's popular Sunday football show after the network revealed two critical stars are battling illness.
Former NFL QBs turned media analysts Boomer Esiason and Phill Simms are out sick and forced to miss the Week 18 edition of NFL Today on CBS.
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The NFL is in the final week of the regular season, and many playoff scenarios and possibilities are still alive.
However, the notable CBS show will have to perform without two of its experts during the critical week of the NFL.
According to the New York Post, Simms and Esiason are reportedly battling being sick.
Esiason, 62, was not seen at all on any of the CBS NFL shows on Sunday.
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While Simms, 68, appeared on one of the CBS NFL programs earlier in the morning during the pregame show but left shortly after.
Before he left, he did a segment discussing his thoughts on the Kansas City Chiefs moving forward into the playoffs and if he envisioned a deep run for them.
"I was convinced last week because they ran the football and played a little differently.
"They hit rock bottom and just had to have a game where they won and did something.
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"The team can go to the Super Bowl because of their defense...
"I think they can be a big factor," Simms said on the pregame show.
Simms has been a staple in NFL media for years, with stops at ESPN and NBC before joining CBS Sports in 1998.
His contract is set to come to an end after this season's Super Bowl in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The former Pro Bowl quarterback recently told the New York Post that his future remains undecided.
"I'm never going to get out of it," he said.
"I don't know what I'll do if I don't go back to CBS. But I'm definitely going to continue to work with or in the NFL — somewhere, somehow, whatever it is.
"I'm just not going to go, 'OK, I'm done. I'm retired.'"
The report also noted that CBS had yet to make a decision, with their focus instead set on the Super Bowl.
