As a fan of our nation's favorite sport, how many times have you heard this statement (or something to this effect)? Better question: how many times since August started have you heard this? That might make it easier to track.
The last time I heard it was this morning while driving to work. I was catching up on "The Adam Carolla Show" from last Tuesday (prior to the Giants-Cowboys game) with Brandon Steiner as the guest. For those of you who don't know (I imagine all of you fall under this category) this dude makes his money by selling sports memorabilia. He's a New York guy. Specifically, he is in the Giants/Yankees camp.
The Cowboys/Giants game came up and this guy interjects some comment along the line of, "they don't have a quarterback" when asked why the Giants would win. Normally, I would just roll my eyes and make a mental comment about how dumb New Yorkers are; but I was litterally raging about this topic a few days ago so it's almost like the universe is asking me to take a stand.
And stand I will.
Because this notion that Tony Romo is not a good Quarterback is complete, and utter bull hooey. Infact, I suggest that if you are ever in a situation where someone tries to interject this as an opinion; you consider it your obligation as a red blooded american to beat the shit out of them and make them apologize.
Tony Romo is many things (Jessica Simpson ex boyfriend, Carrie Underwood's ex boyfriend, Eastern Illinois Alumni etc) but a "bad Quarterback" is no where near that list.
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| Once and for all: Romo has not been the problem. |
Unlike those douche bags who fling recklace opinions to and fro all willy nilly, I like to ground my arguements in a little something called "proof". First, let me throw this out: Bad Quarterbacks exsist on bad teams. The only time a Romo lead team finished under .500 was the season he only played in 6 games. So, there.
But thats not going to be good enough, I understand. After all, Fantasy Football is king in this town. My arguement needs stats. Lucky for all of you, I have come prepared. Fasten your seatbelts.
Including last week, the Romosapian has started 78 games as the QB of the Dallas Cowboys. In those starts, he has compiled a yard's-td-int stat line of 20,879-149-70. Using Eli as a comparison (divison rival. Romo's week 1 match up. The QB of Brandon Steiner's Giant team that made him feel confident enough to call Romo a bad QB) He has racked up 27,726-186-129 in 120 games. 42 more games, 37 more touchdowns.
I don't think I need to tell you that Romo's per game averages are better( and obviously his per/16 game stats are better). But I should highlight that there are two factors skewing these stats outside of Eli's 42 additonal starts. 1, Romo missed 10 games in 2010. Through those six games he was completeing a curly hair under 70 percent of his pass attempts. Who knows what kind of magic he would've thrown up that year. And 2, Eli just gave his career average's HgH last year by dumping almost 5000 yards in a pass happy offense. If you really wanted to see how awesome Romonucleosis career has been so far, you should just just compare the two through the first 78 games of Eli's career.
Actually lets do that, while expanding at the same time. By my count there are 6 QB's heading to Canton as soon as they hang up their cleets. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Ben Rothlisburger, Eli Manning and (baring a catestrophic injury) Aaron Rodgers (Aaron hasn't played in 78 games yet thanks to Favre, so lets just ignore him for the rest of the arguement).
- Drew Brees: 17,479-109-73
- Tom Brady: 18,029-123-66
- Peyton Manning: 20,107-134-98
- Eli Manning: 16,190-110-80
- Ben Rothlisberger: 16,860-110-73
So Eli, armed with his 2 superbowl rings, is considered a future Hall of Fame QB. Ben Rothlisberger with his 2 rings, same boat. And rightfully so for both. They're legacies are not on trial here. Drew Brees, armed with his 1 ring and the greatest Passing Season of all time. And Brady and Manning will be forever locked into the death match for Greatest QB of All Time arguement.
Yet here is Romo who has compiled better stats then all of them. Through 78 games. So why does Romo get all the heat and none of the praise?
There are actually a couple different factors that have caused the hating of the Romocoaster. 1, he plays for one of the 5 most covered team's in sports. They were unquestionably the most covered team in the NFL prior to this offseason, but took a backseat due to bounties, neck surgeries and Tebow. Since 2006, we have had a severe over saturation of the Cowboys Quarterback.
2. That (lovely, wonderful, glorious, magestic, perfect) botched field goal hold against Seattle in 2006. Romo seemed like he was the answer to the "When is Dallas going to replace Aikman" question that they had been asking for half a decade at that point. Then he muffed a hold and everything became murky. The third reason, his famous ex girlfriends. I've never seen him try and complete a 15 yard out to Jessica Simpson (maybe that's because she's built like a tackle?) so this should be a non issue.
The fourth, which ties into the fifth: he doesn't have a signature win and he doesn't have a ring. Think back to Romo's biggest win of his career. Seriously, whats his most important win? This is where the Romo hate gets it's steam. All those HoF Qb's I listed up there have wins that we can look back and say, "remember when Peyton rallied the Colts in the AFC championship game" or "remember Big Ben's final drive in Superbowl XLIII?" and they all have rings. Romo doesn't have one of those. Yet.
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| How would you feel about Romo if he were in this picture? |
(editor note: using the 78 start's bench mark again, only Brady, Rodgers and Big Ben had rings. All three have won all their championships before the 78 game marker. Moving on.)
What he does have is an ass load of positive fantasy numbers while leading the NFL's craziest reality show (this is not an argueable point: his most talent WR has a professional baby sitter). What he does do is keep his head low, his hat backwards, and his moutshut; while he pray's to whoever he pray's to that somebody on his line will block a blitzing linebacker. Dallas isn't neccesarily talent starved (especially at WR) but they do consistantly lack depth at positions aimed to keep their franchise QB alive.
I read an article last year (I wish I saved the link, but it was too ridiculous at the time) asking if Dallas should move on from Romo. It upsets me to think that people honestly feel like Romosexual is the problem with this franchise. He isn't. He is the brighspot. His numbers put him in the conversation of future HoF. Go back and re-read the stat comparisons with Brady and the Mannings.
Through 78 games, Romo's numbers say he belongs in the ellite conversation's. Unfortunately, his lack of jewelry gives the ignorate masses amunition to ignore those claims. The solution for #9 is simple though, he has to win. Anthony Romo win's one Superbowl, and as if he rattled of a string of hailmary's, all will be forgotten.
But he's got to get something out of his teammates to do that. No team has ever won a superbowl with one player.
But one player can sure get a shit load of the blame.
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