Former Alabama quarterback Blake Sims announces retirement from football

Former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Blake Sims announced his official retirement from the sport on Friday while on a Twitter Space with Paul Finebaum. Finebaum reacted by telling the 30-year-old QB that’s he’s too young to retire.

“You know, I retired,” Sims revealed. “I retired about two weeks ago. I was playing in the IFL. And we fell short one game of a championship.”

Blake Sims was a partial contributor at Bama from 2010 through 2013, however, in 2014, he took over as starting quarterback and posted a record-setting season. In 14 starts, he passed for 3,487 yards, 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Alabama ended the 2014 season with a loss to the eventual national champions, the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Since leaving Alabama as an undrafted free agent in 2015, Sims, a Gainesville, Georgia native, has played for five different football leagues, including two NFL practice squads.

His most recent team was the Spokane Shock of the Indoor Football League.

After missing a couple opportunities as an undrafted rookie, Sims signed with the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. He then moved to the Saskatchewan Roughriders before quitting the U.S. for Australia. In 2016, he played for the Wollongong Devils of the National Gridiron League. When he returned he spent time in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Sims eventually joined the Alliance Football League but injuries kept him from playing in 2019. After that, the Indoor Football League was his final stop.

Blake Sims notched top-five Alabama quarterback performance versus Florida

Recent Alabama quarterbacks have had some amazing games but in his one season as starter, Blake Sims made magic versus the Florida Gators. Sims totaled almost 500 yards of offense (445 passing, 39 rushing) in that game to go along with four passing touchdowns. Plus, he did it all against a top-15 Gators defense.

On Alabama’s first play from scrimmage, Sims connected on an 87-yard slant-and-go to running back Kenyan Drake, which went for a touchdown to give the Crimson Tide a 7-0 lead. Florida came storming back and even got up 14-7 after a DeAndrew White fumble was returned for a touchdown, but Sims helped rally the troops.

In the first half alone, Sims was 17-of-23 (73.9%) for 335 yards and three scores. His ability to throw a consistent and beautiful deep ball was put on display multiple throughout the game. Of course, his favorite target was none other than Amari Cooper, who had 10 receptions for 201 yards and brought in three of the four passing touchdowns in the game.

Former Alabama offense coordinator and current Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin helped Sims go from being a backup running back to a second-team All-SEC signal caller in only one offseason. In 14 games, the dual-threat QB posted over 3,800 total yards of offense and 35 touchdowns while tossing 10 interceptions.

On3’s Clint Lamb contributed to this report.