A cold front blew through North Texas overnight.
Blame Tony Romo.
Ridiculous as it sounds, that’s the lunacy of a popular parlor game sweeping through the Metroplex these days. If it sucks, the Cowboys’ quarterback must have something to do with it.
Rangers have lost three in-a-row. Kids have the sniffles. Late filing your taxes. Oh yeah, and that Donald Sterling character. Easy explanation? No. 9’s fault.
Obviously fabricating a “Tony Romo Curse” is as silly as basing any actual belief in the Sports Illustrated jinx or Madden jinx or superstitions or karma. In sports, if you’re good enough you usually win and if you’re not good enough, more times than not you lose. Luck plays a part, sure, but it’s happenstance and arbitrary, totally oblivious to skill and talent and, therefore, not something to plan for or rely upon.
Nonetheless, irrational sports fans have absorbed some local losses recently and trained their blame game at Romo. Weird to connect failure to an undrafted free agent who has lasted 10 years in the NFL, will make more money in 2014 than most critics will in their entire lifetime, has a beautiful wife, two healthy kids and who, oh by the way, holds most of the Cowboys’ all-time passing records, including throwing more completions and touchdowns than Roger Staubach or Troy Aikman.
Romo, of course, fumbled the snap on a potential game-winning field goal in a playoff game against the Seahawks and has produced his share of crunch-time interceptions. But over the last three seasons he’s the reason the Cowboys managed 8-8 when his surrounding cast – especially historically bad defenses – played like 5-11 teams.
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In a parallel universe, Romo is beloved. In Dallas-Fort Worth, he’s the preferred whipping boy and a perverted punch line.
The latest teams to be supposedly infected with the Romo Curse:
Duke – The critics like to say that Romo showed up at Cameron Indoor Stadium and, wouldn’t you know it, the Blue Devils got upset in the NCAA Tournament by Mercer. But, um, the game Romo and coach Jason Garrett actually attended – against rival North Carolina on March 8 – was actually won by Duke. Sorry. But I guess if you want the Romo Curse to be real, anything short of a National Championship would be his fault.
SMU – He and Garrett and buddy Jason Witten went to Moody Coliseum for the Mustangs’ showdown game against highly-ranked Louisville. SMU lost, and the quarterback was blamed. Of course, the critics conveniently forgot to mention Romo’s presence a couple weeks later when Romo attended SMU’s thrilling comeback victory over Cal in the NIT.
Stars – Again, selective blame here. Romo went to a hockey game at AAC on January 21 and the Stars won. No biggie. But then last weekend he showed up again and Dallas blew a two-goal lead and lost the series in dramatic, heart-breaking fashion. So when Romo shows up and the team wins, yawn. When he shows up and the teams loses, curse! Now you see the idiocy of the supposed Romo Curse.
Mavericks – Romo and Witten sat behind Dallas’ bench as the Mavs rallied from a 20-point deficit only to lose to the Spurs in the final minute. Only part of Romo’s appearance that deserves criticism was the giant dip of tobacco in his lip. Maybe it’s good for his back rehab?
Since 1997 Tony Romo has quarterbacked every Cowboys' playoff victory.
Credit No. 9?
Or, if you must, continue to fault him. Pretty sure it’s going to rain one of these days and Tony Romo does live here.
So …
A native Texan who was born in Duncanville and graduated from UT-Arlington, Richie Whitt has been a mainstay in the Metroplex media since 1986. He’s held prominent roles on all media platforms including newspaper (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Observer), radio (105.3 The Fan) and TV (co-host on TXA 21 and numerous guest appearances, including NBC 5). He currently lives in McKinney with his wife, Sybil, and two very spoiled dogs.
