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Ride sober or get pulled over. All right, so we go to hour number two. It's a three-hour program. Start of our number two. Show is brought to you by FanDuel.
Welcome back. I am Jim Rome. Nice to have you here. All right, so as this hour sets up, I've got an interview with Tony Elliott, the head football coach at Virginia. That's coming up in about 20 minutes.
Let me start the second hour off with a. chat which is going to get me a new The second hour topic, at least to start the hour. Amber. War Lady Clones. Quote.
This is Amber in the chat. Dejaun. Is a flight risk? Where's he going? The flat he owns in London?
The vineyard he bought in Italy? His yacht this sitting in the Amalfi coast? Yeah, okay. Nice job, Amber. Amber's Fonnie.
Well done.
Well played.
Alright, so just when I thought that I could not get another day out of the alleged Niners scammer. Deja love. The California Post gave us the gift of a scammer mugger today. It is the first time, I think, that we have seen Love since he was arrested in Boise last week, and you may not recognize him without his Niner gear, but here he is. There's the mugger.
Whoa, dude, pull back. Pull back a little bit. James Kelly can't believe that forehead. Holy crap, thank you, Lorne Flight deck, can't believe that flight deck. Flagellant Anyway, if you're not watching on the radio.
Be glad that you're not watching from the radio because that was alarming.
Now we know why he never takes that helmet off. Not because he wants to scam all these women, not because he wants to convince all these people that he plays for the 49ers. It's because of that five head.
Now it all makes sense. Wow, now we know why Dude needs a helmet to run routes on the beach. It all makes sense. Should have hit LeBron. or Jalen Brown for some of that paint.
or spray on hair. We know he asked the cops. If he could leave his helmet on for the mugger. Look at these two dudes. You can't even tell them apart.
If you're watching on the stream. You tell me. You tell me which one is the fake 49er scammer and which one's James Kelly. Kicking this. Oh, wait.
Let me tell you something. The only guy that wants to be on the Niners more than Daquan is James. Dajon, I should say. The only one who wants to be on the Niners more than Dejaun. Is Day James?
Anyway. You know he asked the cops. If he could leave his helmet on for the mugger. You know he did. Dude probably sleeps with that bonnet on.
He probably showers with that bucket on. He probably drives one of his luxury exotic whips while rocking that helmet. How did they even get him to take it off? I'm sure that's why he's so upset. Look at him in that picture.
That's why he's so upset. He's either pouting because they made him take the helmet off or because they did not hook him up with an orange jumpsuit with Niner logos on it. You tell me what's more embarrassing. The Jed Pork Mugger. Or this scammer mugger.
Now based on wealth and reputation, I'll put those two guys side by side, and you tell me. Based on wealth and rep, Obviously, it's more embarrassing for Jed Pork. We didn't know the other guy. Until we found out about this guy. But based on hairline.
It's obviously more humiliating for Dejaun.
So I guess technically when asking the question, which is more embarrassing? Jed pork or Dajon? The answer is yes.
Now Unlike pork. Dejaun does not just get to walk away from this one. In fact, he's probably still in police custody. Probably because the feds say that he targeted at least 26 different women in his schemes over the past four years. And he accused of successfully scamming them out of 1.3 million.
Which still makes less than no sense to me at all. How is it possible that 26 women, and if we know of 26, I guarantee there are so many more? I guarantee it. But even 26. How is it possible that 26 women could fall for any of this dude's bullcrap?
Guarantee it. 26? One, two. Too sure. Seven or eight?
Maybe. But twenty six? Fell for one of the most obvious, least convincing act ever. It does not make any sense.
Now, the feds are taking this so seriously that federal prosecutors successfully argued to keep him in police custody without bail until further notice because he's too big of a flight risk to be released.
Now that does track. Considering he's not exactly the most trustworthy dude in the world. In fact, he seems like he's one of the least trustworthy dudes in the world. Look at him. Does that look like a dude you can trust?
If you're watching on the stream, does that look like a dude you can trust? Your Honor. I feel terrible. I promise I won't flee the state. I promise I won't go anywhere.
I promise I won't go to my flat in London. I promise I won't go to my vineyard on the Amalfi Coast. I promise I will not go to my apartment on Billionaire's Row in Manhattan. I promise I will not go to my yacht. which is docked in the Caribbean.
I promise I won't go to my vacation home in St. Bart's. I promise, Your Honor. I won't go to any of these places. I promise I won't get in my Lamborghini and just start driving.
I promise I won't hide up and hole out in my mansion in Beverly Hills. I promise I won't go to my beach house on Broad Beach in Malibu. I promise I won't hide behind the gates in Bel Air, where I've got another home. I promise I won't go to my home in Montecito next door to Oprah. I promise, Your Honor.
Wh why do I have so many houses? I I don't know, I like houses. Anyway, social media is starting to be flooded with women coming forward to tell their stories about how they got duped by this guy. And you know what, honestly, ladies. You can miss me with these explanations.
there is no excuse to get duped by something this absurdly pathetic. And the only real explanation is You're chasing greed. You're chasing fame. You're desperate. I'll forgive you for being lonely, but not for being that naive.
Even if you know nothing about football, do you have a brain? Even if you know nothing about football, do you have any logic at all? Again, no offence, ladies. But if you can't get somebody to swipe the right way on a dating website, why would a professional athlete who's super rich all of a sudden want to be with you? And why does he want your money?
And why is he going to take your money and double it in thirty days? None of this makes sense. Like, these women appear to be victims of fraud. I want to acknowledge that. Except that it's one of the single, dumbest, most obvious fraud schemes ever.
And by the way, Jerry Rice. How dumb are you, dude? How did you think you were going to get away with this, John Taylor? How dumb are you, dude? Like you're gonna take all this money from this these women And then, when they want their money back or they want answers, you're just gonna block them.
And nobody's gonna report you to the authorities, even if they were dumb enough to get sucked in anyway? Nice try with that. Maybe the funniest part of the whole thing, though, come to find out. Dajon. Tried to switch up and say that he was dealt to the Rams.
He didn't just impersonate a Niner, he also tried to impersonate a Ram. Which is really, really rich. Imagine that dude showing up in the Rams' receiver room. Along with Devontae, Paul. Pookah.
Sean McVazak, my dude, who are you? Who am I? Good one, Sean. Every one of my houses are bigger than your house, Sean. Good one, Sean McVeigh.
What do you mean? Who am I? Good one, coach. Yeah. I'm the guy that's gonna win you a Super Bowl.
Isn't that right, Aaron Donald? Anyway, as kooky as this dude is. He does fit in Frisco right now. I mean, i is it really so far-fetched? That the Niners would be involved in a wide receiver acting like he's on an NFL team when he isn't.
Love isn't even the only one who fits that label this offseason. Remember, Brandon Ayuk. He was acting like he was a commander, even though he was not a commander.
So, why is it so kooky that this dude would act like he's a Niner when he's not a Niner? It sounds like it's very much in character for the Niners. And when you think about it that way, Ayuk. In Dajon, not that different. It's just that Ayuk is actually rich.
And Dejan was scamming people. But in terms of acting like they're on NFL teams when they're actually not. They're pretty much two peas in a pod. Ayuk was acting like he was on the commanders. And Desjon was acting like he was on the Niners.
However, What I'm saying is they both were on social media wearing their respective teams gear when they were not actually on the team. Believe me, Ayuk, the only thing Ayuk was doing differently was he was not running routes on the sand with a commander helmet on. But he was acting rich. He was throwing his money around. Then again, would it have been that surprising?
Would have been that the way Ayuk was acting. Would it have been that surprising if he did show up on the beach? Running routes with his helmet on.
Now, his routes may have been a little crisper than Desjean's.
However, there's none of this kooky nonsense going on with the Rams. Yes, Puka parties a little bit too much, but he's also coming off a year where he led the NFL in receptions and was second in receiving yardage. Puka and the scammer have nothing in common. Unlike Ayuk and the scammer, who actually have a lot in common. I'm not done with this take.
I'll finish it. I just need to get out right now because we have a guest coming up. But there's more to it. It involves the number, the scammer's number, and an actual niner wanting the number. Tony Elliott joins me when we come back.
Yo, Frisco, I mean, for real, what's going on? What is going on with your franchise, Frisco? If you ride, you already know. It only takes a second for things to go wrong out there. What a lot of writers don't realize is, you know, it takes that one drink to change your entire life.
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Visit NavyFederalRealtyPlus.com. Welcome back. I'm Jim Rome. Have a good Tuesday. How about you?
Great to be here. Great to have you here. Let's get right back to it. As promised, we are joined right now by the head football coach at Virginia. He is in his fifth season there.
Cavaliers coming off a year where they were 11-3. They were 7-1 in ACC play. They won the Gator Bowl. He was the 2025 ACC coach of the year. Also won a couple of national championships as an assistant coach at Clemson, Virginia, coming off a 34-8 thrashing of NC State.
They take on Norfolk State on Friday, September 11th. I'm talking about Tony Elliott. Tony, great to have you back on the show. Tony, how are you doing? I'm doing well.
It's good to see you. Appreciate you. Appreciate you. Thanks for making time. Listen, I don't think you can play much better than you did in the opener.
You jumped on NC State early on, you never looked back. What pleased you most about that win? And was there anything at all that you might want to clean up? Oh, yeah, there's always going to be things you want to get better at. We've got to get better at coaches, substitutions, game management, players, obviously, technique, pad level, execution in certain situations.
But what I was really pleased with was just the preparation. What you saw the other day was a result of great preparation all offseason. One of the things that we talked about was being able to handle success, and the way that you handle success is block out the noise and focus on what you can control. And that's what the guys did. Their attitude was where it needed to be.
They believed they could win, and then it looked like a connected group. Tony Elliott joining us, I always talk about this, Tony. Whenever somebody says you got to be able to handle success, I mean, you had a lot of success last year, so there's a lot of expectations. In your experience, what's tougher, players handling success or handling failure? Handling success.
I think failure always gets your attention. You're motivated. You don't like the taste in your mouth. When you have success, oh man, you love that taste. And you just expect it to stay there and remain there, not realizing that you got to go back to work.
You got to work even harder. You got to be more focused on the little things. That's a lot harder, is handling success. You know, it's interesting. According to the Athletic, you have the most experienced roster among Power 4 teams, which includes 29 transfers who played over 22,000 snaps for other schools.
I'm curious, how do you think, did that in any way impact the quick start that you had this past week? And was that organic or was that by design, bringing in that much experience? Yeah, I'd say it's more organic, but we were intentional with finding the right fit. And so I think it just happened that way. It did help because we had a lot of veteran guys that are on our roster, too, that have been here.
We had several young men that have been in the program four years that know what the expectations are, that know what the standards are. And then being able to bring in older veteran guys that have been in college for a while, they quickly can adapt and adjust to what the expectations are here. Speaking of way of chow-out quarterback Bo Perbula, he paid immediate dividends. He had that monster game against the Wolfpack. He threw for a pair of TDs, along with being the game's leading rusher with 110 yards, just one game.
But in your mind, was he as good as advertised, or maybe even a little bit better? Yes, he was definitely as good as advertised, and I was surprised at how fast he is. I mean, I'd seen him run on our practice field, but until you see it against an opposing team, you don't really have an appreciation for it. And so I thought he did a really good job there. In terms of Bo, he won at Penn State, he won at Missouri.
He's a football player. He loves to compete.
So for us, he was as advertised. We're talking to Tony Elliott.
So the defense, Tony, let me jump over there for a minute. It picked up right where you left off last season. You had a really good year last year defensively. In this game, you allowed only 100 yards through the air, 168 total. Look, when you have 11 hats to the ball, it's hard to point to one person.
But how much does that unit feed off a linebacker, Maddox Marcellus, both on the field and off the field? Because he had another huge game on Saturday. Yeah, he's a tremendous leader for us. He was the captain of the ship, making the calls with the green dot, getting everybody lined up. He's a great team guy, very, very intelligent football player, also very, very instinctual.
But most importantly, he's not worried about any kind of personal accolades. He just wants the team to win. It's funny, how would you describe it, for those who missed it? I saw it, but for those who missed it, 62,000 people at Scott Stadium. What was the environment like?
What was that energy like? What did that whole thing feel like? Yeah, it was awesome. It started with the bus ride in and just vibrant campus. We had Shaq performing and doing a little DJ concert.
And so the students were over there. You could see them preparing to come over to the stadium. And our Wahoo walk was awesome. Ton of energy, a lot of excitement. And when you walked into the stadium, it just felt like, okay, you're getting ready for a big-time college football game.
And it lasted the duration of the game.
So shout out to our fan base for showing up. And then also, we had 13,000 of our students that were in attendance, which made a huge difference. Virginia head coach Tony Elliott joining us. Fact of the matter is that was your first sellout since 2008. You know, you're a man who's working a plan and planning your work, and obviously not surprised by any of this.
But let me ask you: when you took that job, did you see a sleeping giant? Did you think you could build a monster? What were your thoughts when you took that job? I did because at the time it was down to Virginia and another institution, and I chose Virginia because I believed it was a hidden giant. If you just look at the lineage of players that have come through the University of Virginia, both at the collegiate level and at the pro level, you look at the state, it's a very, very fertile recruiting state.
I was very fortunate when I was at Clemson to be around some of the best players from Virginia that came down south to play there.
So I knew that there was a ton of talent. It's where the location, right?
So you're still in the south, but then you're also very, very close to the northeast, and you can get to the Midwest relatively quickly. And then the academics.
So we knew that the brand of the university on the academic side and just from a reputational side was huge. Great on-campus stadium.
So I felt like there were a lot of pieces that if we could just align everybody and get everybody believing and pulling in the same direction, we could build something we could all be proud of.
Well, you're right. You're absolutely right about that. In terms of the guys that have come there before and players that have been there, I actually had a conversation with one of them last week, a great conversation with Hall of Famer Ronde Barber. Man, what a class act. What a great, great player.
What's it mean to you to have both he and Tiki's support along with the entire UVA football group? I mean, it means a ton to me. I'm a former player, and so I know the feeling to just have that connection and relationship with your alma mater. And that was one of my main objectives: just to connect everybody and bring all of the former players back. Hey, at the end of the day, it's Virginia football.
It's not Tony Elliott's football program, it's Virginia football. I'm just very blessed that the Lord has put me in position at this time to lead. But my job is to connect and bring everybody back.
So, from Tiki to Cantee to Thomas Jones, who was in attendance for the game, Ronde, Chris Long, and there's Ray Roberts going all the way back, Terry Kirby, and all these great players. Just Herman Moore, having these guys back connected was an objective of mine. And for us to go where we want to go, the young people that are here now have to have a very, very healthy respect and understanding for the guys that laid the foundation that they stand upon today. Tony, do they know? Like, I'm old enough, I'm an older.
Head. I know all those guys you just mentioned. These are great players. Great, great players, great college players, great pro players. Do the guys that you have, do they know about the guys that came before them?
For the most part, you know, the ones that just got here, right, are learning. But over the last several years, I've had as many of those guys come back. Patrick Kearney has been back and got an unbelievable story of his journey here at the University of Virginia. We had Rodney McLeod, who had a great NFL career, was back this year to speak. How about this?
We even had Rick Carlisle, who's a Virginia grad. He was back. He spoke. Look, I love Rick Carlisle. I'm sorry to interrupt you.
That's my guy. That's my guy. So, how did he do with the guys? How did that go? Oh, fantastic.
Fantastic. It was one of the best. And I've been around a lot of speeches to teams over my years, and I thought that his message was very, very timely. Man, he was very, very thorough in his preparation, and he incorporated all of the guys, the leaders on our team. I mean, it was an awesome, awesome presentation.
Tony, really quickly, can I go sidebar? When you mentioned you've been around a lot of guys that have given speeches to teams, who are a few guys that made Speeches that really, really resonated with teams, be it where you are right now or with Dabo or whenever or when you played. Yeah um You know, Daryl Strawberry was one of my favorites when he was. My podcast this week. I had him on this week.
I love Straw. By the way, he was my favorite. Can I say this? I said in my open to the podcast, which I did this week with Straw, and he and I were DMing this morning, I said, if you think you know Straw, you do not know Straw. Straw is one of the greatest reinvention stories and transformations I have ever seen in my entire life.
I love that you mentioned him first. Why does he come to mind first?
Well, first, he was my favorite baseball player growing up, and I always thought that I was going to go to the major leagues. Baseball has always been my first love. And just to have an opportunity to meet him in person, because you know, back in the day, we didn't have the internet, we didn't have the phone. And so, man, these individuals were bigger than life. Man, they were kind of our North Star and who we all aspired to be.
And then to see where he is now in his life and the story that God has created through him was just awesome. I love that you brought that up. That is so awesome. That is really great. One last thought: your program this year, the model for this year is ABC123.
What are the letters and the numbers stand for? Yes, so last year it was TLC, team leadership and commitment, and TLC to CLT because the championship game is in Charlotte, right? And we were able to accomplish that. And, you know, the objective for us as a team is to is to go chase an ACC championship.
So having success last year, I wanted to keep it simple, right? And the easiest way to keep it simple is here, ABCs, man, go back to the basics.
So ABC is an attitude, belief, connection.
So we got to have, we control our attitude. It's all about our belief, no matter what anybody says. And then teams win.
So we got to be connected, especially with 46 new guys coming into the program. We had to be intentional with our connection. And then the 1-2-3, there's been two ACC championships in school history, and we're hoping to be the third.
So that was the ABC 1-2-3. Keep it simple, and let's go chase number three. That's it. Good stuff. He is the head football coach, Ed Virginia.
And they're coming off an 11-3 year and a very good start to this year. Tony Elliott, my guest. Tony. Really appreciate you. Appreciate the visit.
Thank you for making time. You always make it better. Great to have you on the show. I appreciate you. And please tell Straw I said hello.
Oh, I'm going to do it right away. I'll do it during the break. Tony Elliott joining us. Isn't that amazing? Like, and you know me because I like that space.
And I like motivational speakers, and I do a little bit of that myself.
So I was really, of course, I jumped on that. Like, so who's a good speaker? We'll do a strawberry. I know. I talked to him a couple of days ago.
Straw's awesome. Straw actually jumped in my DMs this morning, and he was talking about the whole LA thing, the LA Sports Town thing. And he commented on my post. Because Straw played in New York, Straw grew up in LA, Straw played in LA, and Straw knows. I love that Tony Elliott said, actually, baseball was my first love, and I always wanted to be a major leaguer, and Daryl Strawberry was my guy.
Stride it He came off so great in the reinvention project pod. It's what I posted this week. I brought the pod back finally. I had it on pause for a minute, and I finally brought it back. And I did what I always do in those pods.
I give you my monologue. I give you the things that I've been working on for myself and my brand and my reinvention and my personal transformation. And then I do the interview, and the interview is with Straw, and it's absolutely amazing. Where Straw is in his life. And without giving it all away, I would say.
He's at the peak of his powers at 64. I mean, straw. Straw has been, I want to be careful how I say this because Straw, he's an ordained minister now. And Straw's been to hell and back. Daryl Strawberry.
I mean Substance abuse. Broken relationships. Jail. I mean, he has been through so much. Not only come out the other end, But in a better place at sixty-four than he ever was with a bat in his hand.
And that's saying something. Because he was one of the purest guys I have ever seen. I agree with Tony. I always loved Straw, loved him as a player. Love him as a product of LA.
Love that he's an LA native. And we talked about some of the great players that came out of LA, that came up with him. It's again, the reinvention project pod is not a sports pod. But I do have sports people on it. Bill Coward came on it.
I've had other athletes on it. But Straw and I took a minute. Straw and I took a minute to reminisce about some of the great, great baseball players that came out of LA, that came out of the city. Him, Kevin Mitchell, Eric Davis. But mostly we talked about transformation.
So I think that's really cool that that's the first name that Tony Elliott mentioned.
Alright, so my thanks to him.
Some quick reaction. Let's see, let's see, let's see, let's see. And I'm good. Yeah. Still ahead, we'll talk Arizona football.
Bren Brennan. He is the head football coach at the University of Arizona. We'll have that an hour from right now. In terms of reinvention, transformation, working on yourself. You know he's gotta do some of that.
Tony Romo. Tony Romo came out with a heartfelt statement today. and said that he's got an alcohol dependency. That he's going to do the work on himself. I want to get into that when we come back and more.
Stay tuned. You're listening to the Jim Rome Show. All right, welcome back.
So, new topic. Nice to be with you. It's been a minute since we've heard from Tony Romo. In fact, since the incident, we have not heard anything directly from Tony. In July, he released a statement to a third party that claimed in part.
Quote, Tony accepts full responsibility for his actions, end quote. Except, you really hadn't yet, because nobody else can take full responsibility for your actions. Other than you.
Now, to his credit, He made that right today when he finally released a real statement that actually came from him. And the timing of the statement, frankly, is no mystery. He appeared in court today in Wisconsin. He pleaded no contest to charge is that he was driving while intoxicated. And as a result, he's had his driving privileges revoked for six months.
He has to have a breathalyzer installed on his ignition. And he has to complete an alcohol assessment program and pay a fine. But on top of all that, he might have even bigger problems. Because according to his statement today, Romo also said, and I quote, This morning. I faced a recent personal failure by pleading no contest to a civil offense for OWI in Wisconsin.
I own this completely. Multiple back surgeries ended my career earlier than I expected and left me with constant, debilitating pain. That pain led to a dependence on pain medication. and my efforts to get off those medications led to an over-reliance on alcohol. End of quote.
So Firstly. Way to own that. Secondly, hearing about a dependency is a very unfortunate. But unfortunately, not surprising thing to hear, right? How many former football players And their careers with a dependency on painkillers.
I don't know the numbers. But I would imagine quite a few. I know this too many. Too many. It's too common, too many, and not at all surprising when we know the culturists get on the field.
find a way back on the field. Get on the field or somebody will take your job. I mean, from day one, it's hammered. Availability is your best ability.
So, how are you going to get yourself back on the field? but by any means.
So he said his career ended earlier than he wanted it to, and then he got addicted to painkillers or had a dependency on painkillers. And then when he tried to get off his painkillers, then he developed a dependency on alcohol. And I don't think it was as clear-cut as, well, I stopped taking my pills. But then to take the edge off, I needed alcohol. I don't know if there was an overlap, I don't know if he was dependent on both those things.
But very clearly he is owning that there was a dependency or dependencies.
So this is not an easy thing.
So it seems to me now would be a very, very good time. to take a break. Be honest with yourself. And do the hard work because it sounds like it's going to be a very, very difficult path.
Now, a path others have travelled. And it can be done. But you're gonna have to do the work.
So something way worse could have happened than what did happen. It's not a good thing now, right? We don't know whether or not CBS is going to maintain him. We don't know whether or not he has a job. They haven't fired him yet.
And he clearly has a dependency.
So this is not a good thing, but it could have been so much worse. Like he's gonna get a second chance. A second chance at life, a second chance at a career. There's still plenty of reason to believe that he can bounce back from this and continue a broadcasting career. At CBS, I don't know.
But I don't doubt for a second that if he gets sober, And he gets clean. and he does the hard work, he will get another chance. because he's likable enough And as I mentioned, America is very forgiving and loves a comeback story. But, but, on top of that Most important thing is he has to work on himself first. Get clean, get sober, get healthy.
That more than anything else is the most important thing.
Now, if he does that and he wants to continue doing what he was doing, it seems to me. He's going to also have to rededicate himself to the craft. Like I don't know if he got complacent. I don't know if he got lazy. I don't know if he stopped doing the work.
I don't know if he stopped preparing. I don't know if it was the dependency or dependencies. Any number of these things, or all of these things, could have impacted his on-air performance. And you know, I think if you know me. I have always, always, always just stayed in my lane.
I do not comment on other people's performances on air because I feel like I've got enough to worry about my own performance, right? I'm just not about that. But the fact of the matter is, he was not nearly what he was when he exploded onto the scene. He was a star. Like a superstar.
He was really, really unique and really, really different and really, really likable and really, really popular.
Now, maybe he had that one tool in his toolbox, that thing where he could guess plays before the plays actually happened. And then they got him to stop doing that. And there's a number of reasons for that, right? Number one, we want to watch the game. Can you please not tell us what's happening every single time before it happens?
And the number two, you know, the real dirty little secret, Gambling. Right, there's micro betting. You don't want this guy telling everybody what's happening before they bet. Or as they're betting. Whatever it was.
They very clearly told him, stop doing that. And then, when he no longer had that club in his bag, then what was there? And then he just kind of went off the cliff. You know, this guy went from being the second coming of John Madden to somebody who was kind of insufferable, frankly. And a hard listen and a hard watch.
And it kept getting worse and worse and worse. You know how the world is. As fast as they build you up, they will tear you down. And then all of a sudden, the internet decided that he was public enemy number one. But the fact of the matter is, he wasn't nearly as good at his job as he was when he first came on the scene.
That's why I give guys like, I'll give you an example: Troy Aikman. I have immense respect for Troy Aikman because he to me is as good now as he's ever been, and he's done for 20 years. I mean, easy to be really good. When you're early on and you're hungry and you have to prove yourself, but then Roma got paid. And then Roma got all the accolades, and I don't know what happened.
I just know this. He was not nearly as good as he was.
So, was he not working at it? Did he get lazy? Was he complacent? Was he dependent on pills or alcohol? Is the answer yes?
Whatever it was. He needs a reset. And the good news is, this guy can make it back. He can make it back. From all of this.
If he does the hard work.
Now, I don't think he'll ever be Troy Aikman. I don't even think he'll ever be the Tony Romo that he was in year number one. I don't think it'll be Collinsworth. I know he's not going to be Greg Olson. He just doesn't have that kind of insight.
He's not even Tom Brady. Hell, he's named my guy Ross Tucker. But The guy can make it back. There is a path back. If he gets healthy, If he gets sober, I guarantee somebody will give him a job, maybe a high-profile job.
America will forgive him, because they always do if you earn your way back. It's definitely true that we love to tear people down. And we love to see people fall from the top. I hate that that's true, but that's true. But but the thing that does give me hope, we also definitely will root for a true comeback story.
Somebody who lifts themself up from rock bottom. If you say you're sorry and you mean it, if you do the work, and you earn your way back. America will always forgive celebrities and athletes and famous people. And it won't be any different for Tony Romo because he's always inherently been a likable guy. He just has to put in the work.
And he has to do what he said in his statement today, and that's own it completely. and then get himself better and refocused and rededicated.
Okay. As for the short term, it's kind of hard to imagine him getting his job back anytime soon. Again, we don't know, and there's money involved, lots of money involved, and I'm sure some lawyers and CBS has not said yet what's going to happen. But I I could see a pat back. I could see a way back.
Not not as a number one network analyst. That probably won't happen. But if he does all the right things and does the hard work, I can see him making it back. Maybe not this year. But it shouldn't be a priority.
getting right back to the booth should not be a priority. But Flunk another Felix Sobriety test. Like you're telling everybody what they want to hear right now. And you're saying what you should be saying. And hopefully you are owning it.
Because if it happens again. You'll be as finished as I mean, I hate to say it, but Mark Stabchez. Unfortunately for Mark Sanchez, I'm not sure that I see a path back. Romo. There's a gig for Rummel.
So we'll see how it plays out. But that's the latest with him, and an official statement today, and he was in court. What do you think? Do you buy it? I think a lot of people were rooting for him.
But it's gonna be tough. Cujo knows with the super chat. Jokingly said, Romo was drunk on the mic. But yikes. I'm not saying that.
I am not saying that. You're not the only one thinking that. You're not the only one saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that his performance dropped off dramatically.
dramatically. And I can't speak for CBS. I don't know if that in part is why they want to get out of that contract. If they want to get out of that contract. I don't know if it's just the morals clause or they're using the morals clause.
I'm not speaking out of school here. Is there anybody anywhere who doesn't think that he got worse at his job? I think that's fair. The question is why? Did he stop caring?
Did he stop working? Like those jobs, you have to work at those jobs. You can't just show up and watch the game and say, ooh, ooh, AJM Aw, and make a bunch of noises. You have to do the work. We know who does the work.
You know who's prepared. You know who's a pro. You know who's good at it. You know who's natural. And you know who's good.
And you know who works. And then you know who just shows up. He started to sound like he just showed up. He wasn't telling us anything that we didn't already know. Bro, you played the game.
You're supposed to have insights that we don't know. We weren't getting that anymore. Kenneth E. 503, quote. The chat doesn't tear people down at all.
I know. I know. The chat's the one place in the world where you don't tear people down. That's why I have so much pride in the jungle chat. That's the one place I can point to in the world where we're not tearing people down.
Why, it's such a safe space. I'm so proud of that. I th if anything I'm more proud of that than anything about this entire brand. That we have a chat from our YouTube feed where you do not tear people down ever. It's it's like a no-hater zone.
Okay. There's no negativity. It's nice, nice, nice, chad. It's the garden. It's not the jungle.
You're right. We agree. It's a safe haven. It's a safe place. Hey, go to the chat.
Find out for yourself. Nobody ever gets torn down there. Stay tuned.
