home anywhere: November 2007

I heart Tony Romo

Bear with me for the occasional sports post...

I'm a Cowboys fan. I can't remember that not being true. It was fun for a while, then not so fun, then really fun (in the early 90's), then fairly life-sucking for about ten years. Things have looked up for the last few seasons, but this year is the first time I can remember really having fun watching the Cowboys play. Hate TO all you want, but these guys are playing hard, playing well, and they seem to have rediscovered something that most professional athletes have forgotten -- they are getting paid a gajillion dollars TO PLAY A GAME. What most of us do for recreation, they get to do for unholy piles of cash.

Anyway, watching guys who enjoy what they do is fun, and this team is fun. The two best examples of this on the team are Marion Barber and Tony Romo. Barber still isn't even the starting running back, but I honestly can't remember seeing a guy who plays as hard as this kid. Every time he touches the ball, he runs like he's carrying a nuclear bomb and the fate of the world depends on him getting it to the end zone. He runs angry, but he's having a blast. And then there's Romo. This is a guy who truly appreciates what he has - an undrafted free agent from Western North Dakota Technical College for the Sewing Arts who, almost overnight, became the very rich quarterback for the greatest franchise in professional sports.

So I was having fun watching them dismantle the Eagles last night in their own house. This is always a fun experience, but I enjoy it a little more after living among a bunch of booing Philly fans for three-plus years. In the 4th quarter, following a play in which Jason Witten had his helmet ripped off, then proceeded to run 30 or 40 more yards, this scene unfolded. Don't tell me this isn't the most fun team to watch in the NFL: