Romo announced his retirement Tuesday, ending his playing career for the chance to ruin Phil Simms' spring. (OK, this probably wasn't the primary reason behind Romo's decision, but you can't argue the science behind cause and effect here.) Good for Tony, who, let's be honest here, makes a decision that will spare football fans the depressing sight of a grimacing No. 9 being carted to the Texans' locker room with Sad Tony Romo Face. (You know the one.)
Romo comes out of this as a big winner. Though we might never know for sure, there's a decent chance Romo already had reached his expiration date as a functional franchise quarterback. So, he scanned his options and maxed out his leverage to get one of the best media jobs in the business. As far as backup plans go, it beats the hell out of watching Dak Prescott from the sideline as FOX cameras cut to you 45 times a game.
The loser? Well, it might be you. Were you one of the millions of football fans who despised Romo on an almost pathological level? Did the man -- this handsome, rich, successful man -- come to represent everything you loathed about America's Team? Don't worry: There's no witch hunt here. Hating on Tony Romo was one of the great pastimes of the last decade of professional football. I personally chose not to partake, but it was still great fun following along.
With Romo gone, who will you love to hate now? Who fills the vacuum? This is a real problem! And it gets worse. There's an entire separate segment of football fans who cherished the opportunity to trash Jay Cutler. And we might lose him, too! For a decade, Romo and Cutler jockeyed for position as NFL's No. 1 Whipping Boy the way Bird and Magic jockeyed for O'Brien Trophies in the '80s. Now what?
Someone will need to fill that void. All that negative energy needs to go ... somewhere. So let's try to figure this out, going through each of the 32 teams in search of the player most vulnerable to becoming a target of vast national derision. I'm going to stick to the position Romo and Cutler played, since, let's face it, the quarterback stirs the drink -- even when the cocktail is toxic.
and the winner(?) is :
1) Cam Newton: Newton checks all the boxes. An unquestioned franchise quarterback who's successful, charismatic, handsome and gifted with an ability to get under people's skin. He also still has Super Bowl 50 hanging over him, a game in which some thought he quit ... and that was before he gave a postgame press conference that ... well ... let's just say it lives on a lot of people's radar.
The best thing about Newton: The dude's got the goods ... and he can take it. You get the feeling he finds motivation in the haters. It feels like the basis of every one of his insane Under Armour commercials. Being the Guy You Love To Hate won't work unless you have the ability to shut people up every now and then with your greatness. It's the fuel that builds the irrational hate fire.
Tony, it's time to pass the kerosene.
"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things." George Carlin
May not be a starter at this point but I can see Kaepernick as an easy scapegoat.
“Protect this fucking house, go all out, leave that shit out on the field, let’s have some fun, makes some plays baby ” Mitch Trubisky #believethesleeve
