People love a good comeback story. There’s nothing like seeing someone rise from the ashes and get back to doing what they do best after disappearing for a little while. But shouldn’t we all wait until someone actually goes away before we start clamoring for a comeback?
Yes. But it’s 2017, and we don’t have time to wait for all that to play out. Which is why people are already speculating about Tony Romo making an NFL comeback—before he’s even really left the league.
If you somehow haven’t heard by now, ESPN’s Adam Schefter first reported early Tuesday morning that Romo had decided to leave football in order to launch his broadcasting career:
According to Sports Business Journal, he’s going to start broadcasting games with CBS next season:
He might even get to call a Super Bowl in 2019:
Just one day into his broadcasting career, things are already on the up and up! It’s not often that you jump right to the top of your profession on your very first day.
But that hasn’t stopped people from wondering if Romo is really done with football. Within an hour of Schefter's initial report about Romo leaving the NFL, NFL Network reporter Jane Slater revealed that Romo is likely "retiring" and not retiring. That is to say that, if the Cowboys came calling in a month or six months or even a year and said, "We need you," he would reportedly consider coming back:
And that led to the NFL’s official Twitter account sending out this tweet about how Romo might return to the league one day:
Again, we were less than one hour removed from Schefter’s report. And Schefter himself also talked to several people in the NFL who took things a step further and suggested that it wouldn’t just be the Cowboys calling on Romo in case of emergency. It would be every NFL team taking that step in the event of a catastrophic injury:
For what it’s worth, it sounds like Romo is moving full steam ahead with his idea to broadcast games and not play in them. He is reportedly going to take over Phil Simms’ spot on CBS’ main broadcasting team. There is a conference call set up this afternoon to discuss his new role and everything, according to ESPN’s Ed Werder:
And Romo himself posted this on Twitter about an hour before that press conference was set to begin:
But there are some people who are still not buying Romo as retired. They’re already guessing when he’s going to come back on social media and convinced that he’s going to be back in an NFL uniform before it’s all said and done:
And guess what? This isn’t going to end anytime soon! Even if Romo makes it through an entire season of broadcasting and even if he tells everyone that there’s no way he’s ever coming back and even if he's awesome at his new job, the speculation surrounding the possibility of him making a return will never go away. Which reminds us: Has anyone asked Brett Favre if he would like to play quarterback for the Texans or Broncos this season now that Romo is out of the mix? It couldn’t hurt to ask.