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The Unwarranted Criticism Toward Tony Romo Reaches New Low

People are now mocking Romo for correctly analyzing a Patrick Mahomes play.

Jimmy Traina

Romo made a valid point about Mahomes during the Bengals-Chiefs game, but that didn’t stop people from piling on the takes.
Romo made a valid point about Mahomes during the Bengals-Chiefs game, but that didn’t stop people from piling on the takes. / Denny Medley-Imagn Images

1. I get that bashing Tony Romo is the new fun game for people on X (formerly Twitter) and around the blogosphere, but can the bashing at least make some sense?

During Sunday’s Bengals-Chiefs game, the Romo critics (dopes) hit a new low, mocking him for analysis that totally made sense.

With the Chiefs inside the Bengals’ 10-yard line in the first quarter, Mahomes dropped back on a second-and-4 play. As he was getting ready to throw a pass to Travis Kecle, he spotted a Cincinnati player defending Kelce and threw the ball into the ground instead of forcing a pass and possibly throwing an interception.

“This is Mahomes throwing it in the dirt on purpose,” said Romo. “He sees it, and he’s got such great instincts, he tries… the guy coming right there from the inside, you saw Wilson coming. He didn’t see that initially. But he sees everything. That’s a winning play.”

Every single thing that Romo said there was accurate. Making sure he doesn’t turn the ball over that deep in Bengals’ territory IS a winning play.

It’s the complete opposite of what losing quarterbacks do, a la this gem from last week.

Yet critics came out in full force to bash Romo. I’m not even going to post the tweets and articles because it’s clear that a lot of people just bash Romo to bash Romo.

I thought overall Romo had a great game in the booth on Sunday, especially with X’s and O’s. He seems to have toned things down and wasn’t overhyping plays throughout the game, which is something he's had a tendency to do in recent years.

But it doesn’t seem like most people, for whatever reason, can be objective anymore while analyzing Romo’s analysis.

2. Speaking of NFL analysts, after a ho-hum debut in Week 1, Tom Brady was much more comfortable and entertaining in Week 2, despite having a second consecutive blowout game to call.

There were no jitters when the game started and Brady instantly gave off No. 1 analyst vibes, unlike last week.

As I said on Twitter, this was the best moment of Brady’s day on Sunday.

The more Brady takes us inside his mind and how his brain worked during games, the better.

My only critique of Brady in Sunday’s Saints-Cowboys game is that I’d like to see him be a little more aggressive when talking about bad calls. There were a few instances where the refs completely got things wrong, and Brady glossed right over it. The only analyst who actually takes the refs to task is Troy Aikman. It would be nice if Brady took a page from Aikman’s book since he’s the best analyst in the NFL.

One note: Brady and Burkhardt are expected to be on the call for Sunday’s Ravens-Cowboys game. It will be Brady’s third straight week calling a Dallas game. It won’t happen four weeks in a row because the Cowboys play the Giants on Thursday Night Football in Week 4.

3. We once saw CBS’s Kevin Harlan handle play-by-play for two games at once.

On Sunday, Harlan handled a game update when there were technical difficulties with Nate Burleson back in the CBS studio.

4. Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix had the best postgame press conference moment of Week 2.

5. Before last night, in the 25-year history of San Francisco’s Oracle Park, 104 home runs had been hit in McCovey Cove. All 104 dingers were hit by left-handed batters.

Heliot Ramos became the first right-handed hitter in the stadium’s history to cause a splash with his home run.

Ramos was well aware that no right-handed batter ever hit a ball out to McCovey Cove and said earlier this week that he wanted to be the first player to do it.

6. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with ESPN’s Kevin Clark.

Clark talks about his transition into TV now that he’s at ESPN, his interviewing philosophy for his Omaha Productions show, This is Football, and whether we will ever see someone who isn’t a former player as an NFL or college football game analyst.

Clark also discusses Tom Brady’s debut game as Fox’s lead NFL analyst, why Bill Belichick has already been a hit as a media figure, why he thinks we won’t see less of Hard Knocks, getting critiqued by his dad, his love of Pearl Jam and more.

Following Clark, Sal Licata from WFAN radio and SNY TV in New York joins me for my weekly “Traina Thoughts“ segment. In this week’s segment, we discuss Week 1 in the NFL, cringe Cris Collinsworth, the new Sopranos documentary currently airing on Max, the upcoming Vince McMahon documentary on Netflix, a Facebook kerfuffle and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina below or on Apple and Spotify.

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

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: John Oliver won an Emmy last night for Best Scripted Variety Series. While giving his acceptance speech, he started to talk about his recently deceased dog. Someone in production thought this would be a good time to play Oliver off and the music started. The result was pretty great.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.

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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.

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