The Worst Idea We've Ever Heard

Somewhere between stupid and utterly irresponsible fall the rumors of Tony Romo being benched in favor of backup/butterfingers Jon Kitna.

Jay Mariotti first hatched the sub-mental plan (that I've seen) in his column today, called Critics Are Right: Phony Romo A Bust, not only suggesting that Kitna would be better for Dallas, but that the move might actually happen. I attributed this to run-of-the-mill Mariotti nonsense. So did Drew.

But then, the worst idea since the Bay of Pigs invasion resurfaced on ESPN's First Take. As it was relatively early in the morning, I thought that in exhaustion, I may have been suffering from auditory hallucinations. But no; the host of First Take (a man whose name I never can remember, with good reason) actually posed this question with a straight face.

I suggested earlier to Drew that Mariotti was sinking into Skip Bayless territory with respect to baseless nonsense; Drew said that he was already there, an idea corroborated by the fact that even Bayless found this notion ridiculous.

Forget about statistical evidence that Romo's a better quarterback than Jon Kitna. (There's a lot.)

A statistical comparison would only lend a bit of legitimacy to the arguments of longwinded simpletons like Mariotti. The idea that Tony Romo--a two-time Pro Bowler, a man around whom the Cowboys have built their team--will be benched for a 37 year-old who has trouble handling snaps needs little in the way of pragmatic argument.

Rather, such outrageous ideas should be treated like those of a four-year-old who spouts them only in hope of getting some attention; unless Mariotti and those like him have lost their gourd, that's exactly what they are, the only obvious differences being that those who have perpetuated the idea in this case are fortyish, and, by some terrible oversight, have been given a medium through which they can annoy a lot more people than just their parents and older siblings.