The Draw Play

Could we…be rid of Booth Romo?

Romo was pulled over in late July in Milwaukee for suspicion of driving under the influence. He had an open container of booze in his Jeep, refused several sobriety tests, and seemed to do rather poorly when answering questions. He got booked and released. I have to admit I thought almost nothing of it at the time. While the NFL has numerous arrests over the year related to DUIs and such, they happen so frequently with no penalty that I’ve become desensitized to them. To be clear: that’s bad. Do not drive drunk. If you do you are a piece of shit. Every person that makes this choice, especially people wealthy enough to afford drivers or rides, deserves far worse than they usually get.

But because they rarely result in penalty higher than a fine I never expected Romo to actually face professional consequences. As of writing, Romo is on leave from CBS. His space in the booth will be filled by JJ Watt, making JJ Watt effectively the first player to sack a QB after retirement. Rumors have swirled around CBS potentially cutting Romo entirely. Maybe replacing him with Greg Olsen, who is excellent and was passed over by FOX for Tom Brady. I’ve read many internet whispers that CBS is regretting giving Romo the massive contract and might be using this offense to boot him.

Romo has become the most widely disliked color analyst out of the main options. Brady improved significantly in year 2 and is honestly okay at the job now. Collinsworth has his haters (me! I’m talking about me!) but he’s still pretty well respected overall. Herbstreit sucks ass as an NFL guy but he’s languishing on Amazon Prime with Al “Fuck Vegetables” Michaels, so he doesn’t have a wide reach. Aikman has gone full circle into enjoyable again because he stopped giving a shit and shoots from the hip with his buddy Joe. Romo meanwhile has just gotten worse and worse. He makes weird snorts and grunts, he’s not as accurate with his calls as he used to be, he deepthroats Mahomes and Allen so badly you can practically hear him choke with pleasure whenever he calls one of their games. I will never get over him praising Mahomes after Mahomes threw a garbage dirt ball. People are sick of Romo now.

Whether or not this is will stick remains to be seen. Romo didn’t do anything as drastic as get high and almost kill an old man. I can absolutely see CBS just holding him out during preseason and sticking him back in the booth for the regular season. Romo might also get off cleanly and not put CBS in a position to fire him. Since he refused multiple tests they may not have any proof he actually was impaired in a court of law, so he might be able to get away with it. I don’t know law well enough to call the potential results. I just know this has already escalated farther than I expected it to, so now I’m hopeful CBS gives Romo the boot and he can go figure out his life without loudly orgasming on my TV everytime Mahomes throws a checkdown.