Reason No. 436 To Hate ESPN

I feel sorry for Tony Romo, and it's because of the industry in which I work.

Pop conversation this week has experts now asking, "Is Tony Romo the next Brett Favre?"

I have two reactions to this question:

1) No.
B) Hell no.

He's not a bad quarterback. In fact, he's quite good and will no doubt have a nice career.

But the TV news industry is such that we spend our hours wondering and analyzing and speculating. It's no different in sports. ESPN has 24 hours to fill every single day until the end of time, so even the most preposterous arguments have to be given consideration.

And once Romo's career is sidetracked by an injury-prone reputation, a mediocre season or two or a failure to win in the postseason, he'll be run out of Dallas and the next argument will be whether Tony Romo underachieved.

He will have underachieved in the eyes of the experts, those who have such an erection over the thought of being the first to pose the comparison between Romo and Favre. Remember, one of ESPN's big themes is "Next." If I recall, that awful glossy adverzine they launched a decade ago had four up-and-coming pro athletes on its inaugural issue with "Next" as the headline. Is Kobe the next Michael? Is LeBron the next Kobe? Is O.J. the next LeBron? Who cares?

Want to know why Romo is no Brett Favre? Because when you think of Favre, you think of him starting nine zillion straight games since 1937 or whatever. You think of his renegade gunslinger reputation and his zest for the game. You think about him battling the Cowboys a couple of times in the playoffs before finally getting to the Super Bowl, and winning it. He got to another Super Bowl the following year and remained a postseason staple a few more years after that. You also think about that Monday night game in Oakland when he lit up the Raiders after his dad's death.

What do you think about when you hear Tony Romo's name? Oh, isn't he the guy who tried to date Jessica Simpson? Or is he the one who botched the snap on a last-minute field goal attempt that would have won a playoff game last season? He's both.

ESPN, please go fuck yourself now.