SI

The Tony Romo Critics Were Out in Full Force During the Chiefs-Ravens Game

Also in Traina Thoughts: Stugotz has the ultimate bad take; Peter Schrager is Nostradamus; The ‘analytics’ trend is horrible and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. I guess I’m supposed to have a Tony Romo take today.

The only problem is my Tony Romo take is much different from everyone else’s Tony Romo take, so I feel like I’m on a different planet.

I know the move now is to either throw up some inflammatory headline about Romo or go on social media and take a shot at Romo so you can get some likes and retweets, but I just didn’t think Romo was bad calling Sunday’s Chiefs-Ravens game.

I’m not saying Romo is perfect. And I’m not comparing Romo to Greg Olsen or Troy Aikman or Cris Collinsworth. 

I’m just saying that outside of those couple of moments when Romo went over the top, his performance didn’t annoy me at all.

I actually thought Romo had a very strong first half. He predicted the Chiefs would throw on a 4th-and-2 in the first quarter. They did and converted. He said the Ravens should go on a fourth down in their own territory in the first quarter. They did and they made it. He repeatedly talked about how the Chiefs weren’t going to be able to gain many yards on the ground against the Ravens’ interior defense, which bore out with Isiah Pacheco gaining just 68 yards on 24 carries.

As I said, where Romo gets himself in trouble is when he goes over the top. Lamar Jackson catching a pass that was deflected and running for 13 yards was a cool play, but also a fluke play and not one of the greatest plays in NFL history. This was total hyperbole by Romo, and he would be better served in moments like this to not be so declarative.

However, some of the criticism I see about Romo is just as over the top as one of his superlatives.

Going to a commercial break after the Chiefs recovered a Ravens fumble, Romo said, “In games like this, the ball matters more than any other game.”

For some reason, this comment seemed to bother a lot of people. Websites and blogs actually wrote stories about this one sentence.

Is this insightful analysis? Of course not. Was it even a sentence that should’ve been uttered? No. Was this just a case of Romo getting his words mixed up as he was rushing to get a sentence in as the music played to take the game to a commercial break? Yes.

If you really think this one line by Romo, while going to commercial break, is big news, I don't know what to say. If this one line by Romo, while going to a commercial break, really impacted your enjoyment of the game, I don’t know what to say.

Actually, I do know what to say. This is just nitpicking of the higher order because it’s become the cool thing to bash Romo, which is unfortunate because CBS has the Super Bowl in two weeks, and you can actually hear the sound of everyone sharpening their knives right now.

2. Back in September, right before the season began, Good Morning Football's Peter Schrager correctly predicted that the Chiefs would play the Niners in the Super Bowl.

Schrager also predicted that the Chiefs would win this year’s Super Bowl, which is fantastic news for the Kansas City faithful because he has correctly predicted the winner of the past five Super Bowls.

Of course, the most loyal of SI Media With Jimmy Traina listeners knew this because we covered this in August when Schrager appeared on the podcast.

3. One of the many, many, many things I hate about the cesspool that is Twitter is when someone pulls out an old sports take from someone and sarcatically says, “This aged well.”

I hate it for two reasons. One, part of the fun of being a sports fan is making predictions, trash talking and arguing with friends about what might happen. But now you have to be fearful someone might pull up a take you had five years ago to pull a gotcha on you, and it takes away all the fun.

Two, it’s not creative or original.

Having said all that, I'm going against my beliefs today because this old take is so good and so hilarious. Plus, if his own show can mock him by tweeting this last night, I can certainly mock him in my column. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Stugotz from The Dan Le Batard Show on Patrick Mahomes.

4. The biggest controversy Sunday was Lions coach Dan Campbell repeatedly passing up field goals to attempt fourth-down conversions.

There seemed to be a 50-50 split between people who thought Campbell coached recklessly and those who felt Campbell was just doing what he always does and that mentality got his team to an NFL title game.

Did the Lions lose because of Campbell?

No.

The Lions dropped a fourth-down conversion, dropped a third-down conversion, fumbled on their own 25-yard line and were the victims of a wild, fluke play when the 49ers’ Brandon Aiyuk caught a pass off a defender’s facemask.

Does all that mean Campbell wasn’t partially responsible for the Lions’ losing?

No.

Both things can be true. The Lions screwed themselves with drops and turnovers and Campbell shouldn’t be going on EVERY fourth down.

Also, screaming “ANALYTICS” every time a coach goes for it on fourth down doesn’t mean they should go for it on fourth down. There are other things to consider.

Home and road, momentum, going up three scores as opposed to two.

One of the worst trends in sports is people explaining a decision by just saying “analytics!”

5. Saturday Night Live spoofed CBS’s NFL Today crew as well as Jim Nantz and Tony Romo this past weekend.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an outstanding conversation with Good Morning Football host Kyle Brandt.

Brandt talks about the strong ratings for GMFB, how he feels about the NFL season winding down, what a Super Bowl in Las Vegas means for people in sports media, why he doesn’t love talking about the Cowboys, why he avoids the social media game, his unique segment for CBS’s NFL Today, his experience on Wheel of Fortune and much more.

Following Brandt, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week, we talk about Doc Rivers leaving ESPN after the network fired Jeff Van Gundy, CBS’s upcoming special on the NFL Today, the best potato chips and more.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated’s YouTube channel.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Curb Your Enthusiasm returns for its final season this Sunday, so we will be featuring Curb videos all week in this spot. Today, we kick things off with the classic “chat and cut.”

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

Published
Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

Home/NFL