Castille's Football Pedigree Has Him Ready For Tuskers Season

Published on August 14, 2010 under United Football League (UFL 1)
Florida Tuskers News Release


ORLANDO, FL - SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 2010 - What are two words a person can use to bring Cleveland sports fans to their collective knees?

Due to the events of this summer, you may have guessed LeBron James, but in this case you would be wrong. The correct answer for today is, "The Fumble".

Those words describe a play in the AFC Championship Game on January 17, 1988 in which Cleveland Browns running back Earnest Byner appeared to be on his way to a game-winning touchdown, but was stripped of the football just before crossing the goal-line by Denver Broncos cornerback Jeremiah Castille.

The Broncos recovered and went on to play in Super Bowl XXII.

Florida Tuskers cornerback Simeon Castille, son of Jeremiah, was just a toddler when his father secured his place in the annals of football history with that famous play at Mile High Stadium.

However, he remembers going from the excitement of knowing his father would play in the Super Bowl to the disappointment of finding out he would not be able to attend because there were not enough tickets to go around.

"My brother Tim and I were really upset to find out our father was giving his tickets to some family friends for the Super Bowl so we were pretty bummed about that," Castille recalls and laughs about it today.

Fast forward 22 years and here we are in 2010 with Simeon and Tim Castille, both graduates of the University of Alabama just like their father. Tim plays fullback for the Kansas City Chiefs and Simeon has spent time in the National Football League with the Cincinnati Bengals and San Diego Chargers.

In fact, Castille grew up in a household rich with football history as his father was a member of legendary head coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's last team at Alabama. Bryant's drill sergeant-like ways were portrayed by actor Tom Berenger in the ESPN original movie "The Junction Boys", became known for intimidating his players and coaches to do their jobs correctly or else they would face harsh consequences. "My father would always tell us that Bear Bryant didn't just run the football team, he basically ran the whole state of Alabama," said Castille. "He told us that even his position coaches would work their players harder because they were afraid of what coach Bryant would say to them."

Jeremiah Castille was a third-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1983 where he went on to wear the creamsicle uniform through the 1986 season. Perhaps it is just coincidence his career-year was played in 1985 --when Simeon was born mid-season-- and he recorded seven interceptions for the Buccaneers.

Soon after Simeon was born he quickly got his nickname "Bart" because his mother Jean wanted to name him Bartholomew, but his father was not going to have a son with such a long name.

"A lot of people ask me about my nickname because of the character on 'The Simpsons' TV show," he said. "But really it comes from my awesome father naming me Simeon and my mother calling me 'Bart' for my nickname because she wanted to name me Bartholomew."

Simeon is married to Christian singer Haley Hunt who recorded the popular song "Won't Stop Runnin" that was featured in the NFL Madden 2007 video game. She also played a part in her husband landing a contract with the Tuskers because she used to work as a nanny for head coach Jay Gruden's three sons.

It was Hunt that placed a phone call to Gruden's wife Sherry to let her know that Simeon was ready to play for Jay and the Tuskers.

"Haley's call helped let us know that Simeon was interested in playing for us, but we get the waiver wires every day so we already knew he was out there," Gruden said.

The second generation Castille describes himself as a smart football player with pretty good ball-skills. He believes that a player can never watch too much film to be prepared for a game.

At 6'0, 195 pounds, Castille will be one of the bigger guys to play in the Tuskers defensive backfield. "Simeon is a jack-of-all-trades kind of guy; a lot of people think he's a corner, a lot of people think he's a safety or a nickel back," said Gruden. "We do a lot of different things in our secondary and for his versatility will be important to us."

Like most of his Tuskers teammates have already expressed in the media, Castille is looking forward to getting into camp and helping the squad bring a championship back to Florida. Though he says the only game he saw last season was the UFL Championship game, he has been tracking what the players have been saying on the internet about this season.

"It seems like a lot of our guys coming back are going to be out for revenge and that's good, I am glad to read that," he said. "I wasn't on the team last year, but it just seems like that is going to be something that's going to help motivate the guys on the team to help cap off a perfect season."

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