Story by Shawn McFarland:
Anthony Simpson cracks a smile, and his eyes light up a little bit, as he reflects on which wide receiver first piqued his interest in playing the position.
“I always watched, growing up, Randy Moss,” Simpson said. “Randy Moss changed the game; the things he could do at wide receiver. The speed, physically freakish.”
So it was the Hall of Famer Moss that drew the Bloomfield senior to the position which he fell in love with.
The Bloomfield senior likes to think he sees some of Moss in his own game. He also sees some Adrian Peterson – a seven-time Pro Bowl running back with the Minnesota Vikings – and a little bit of Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders.
It’s lofty, given the three players he referenced were among the best at their respective positions all time, and Simpson is just a 17-year-old from Hartford. But in the state of Connecticut, Simpson might be all three.
Through 11 games, Simpson, who has been offered a scholarship from Central Connecticut State, has amassed All-State worthy numbers at three different positions. As a wide receiver, he’s caught 61 passes for 1,043 yards and 16 touchdowns. He’s rushed for 1,023 yards and 23 scores. Playing cornerback, he’s intercepted 10 passes, and returned two for touchdowns.
He’s been at the center of Bloomfield’s offense which has scored over 50 points per game, and a key cog of its defense, which has allowed just two points per game for the Warhawks (11-0).
The numbers speak for themselves, and as he continues to produce at each position, his head coach is starting to buy into the comparisons.
“If he has a defender on him, he’ll go up and get it – he will Moss a player,” said Ty Outlaw, in his 10th year leading the Warhawks. “Deion Sanders, he wants to be a lockdown corner … he has 10 interceptions, he’s looking the part. And he does run wild like Adrian Peterson … he’s hard to break down, he doesn’t like going down.”
Simpson first played football when he was 8 years old, urging his dad to take him down to Keney Park and sign him up to play for the Hartford Hurricanes, a youth travel team. Simpson wanted to play wide receiver, but the coaches felt he was best off at running back.
That’s where he picked up his nickname that still follows him today: AP, an homage to Peterson.
He excelled at the position through youth ball, and moved to Bloomfield before high school. When he first stepped onto the field for the Warhawks in 2016, then the reigning Class S state champions, he was adamant: He wanted to be a wide receiver.
Outlaw, like others, saw a running back.
“He was always a running back,” Outlaw said. “We knew he was the next running back [after the graduation of All-Courant honoree Ky’Juon Butler].
“But putting it all together, that’s what people are seeing now.”
After a few years on junior varsity, Simpson split time at running back and wide receiver as a junior, catching 17 passes for 482 yards and rushing for 231 yards as the Warhawks won the Class S title.
But with the 2,000-yard man Butler graduated and playing for the New Hampton School in New Hampshire, Simpson would be asked to play running back as a senior.
And wide receiver.
And cornerback.
“I just take every opportunity that I get,” Simpson said. “Every time that I get a catch, I’m trying to go for six. Every time I get a run, I’m trying to go to the end zone. I like being in the end zone … I love running the ball, catching the ball, putting up points for my team.”
That’s reflected in his 41 total touchdowns, which leads the state by a substantial margin. He entered Wednesday’s Class S quarterfinal game against Stafford/Somers/East Windsor just 33 receiving yards short of 1,000, 74 rushing yards short of 1,000, three touchdowns short of 40 and two interceptions short of double digits.
“My dad, he had a vision, he told me, ‘Son, I believe in you, just go out there and don’t worry about the stats, it will come natural,’” Simpson said.
He rushed for 97 yards and four touchdowns, pulled in 66 receiving yards and intercepted two passes to meet each mark in a 56-0 win.
Outlaw thinks Simpson could have had 10 interceptions last year, too, but he “dropped probably seven of them.” Outlaw, who had 12 interceptions in a single season while at East Hartford in the early 1990s, knows that many of his players want to break his mark.
“He’s fighting for that 12, he wants to beat it,” said Outlaw. “He’s a great DB. He knows how to bait them, then jump in that back hip pocket. Other coaches think he’s beat [on defense] and we’re like yeah, I dare you.”
The Warhawks are knocking on the door of a second-straight state championship, and third in five years. They’ll face No. 7 Plainville in the state semifinals on Monday, a team Bloomfield beat 47-0 early in the regular season. Simpson caught four touchdowns in that game.
Great story by Shawn of Hartford Courant.
