Saturday, January 17, 2009

Thanks, but...

Here's a fun article on ESPN.com, detailing Bill Romanowski's attempts to get a job with the Denver Broncos, or to have a meeting with them, or something. Some highlights:

Bill Romanowski said he had a meeting with new Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels to discuss nutrition.

Romanowski said he's been contacted by Broncos owner Pat Bowlen to come in for a meet-and-greet early next week with the 32-year-old coach who replaced Mike Shanahan.

Broncos vice president of public relations Jim Saccomano told ESPN on Thursday night the Broncos had no knowledge of a meeting with Romanowski.

So he had a meeting, and he thinks he's got another one, but the Broncos don't really agree with him on that, so we'll see. Anyway, Romo wants to talk about nutrition, huh? I definitely remember Romo the fitness nut, but I also seem to recall a Romo who went above and beyond...

'There's another level on where to take a team when it comes to the way it trains,' said Romanowski, who suited up for San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver and Oakland during a standout 16-year career in the NFL that was marked by a bad temper and his admitted use of THG, the designer steroid at the center of the BALCO scandal.

Oh, there's the money line. Just a little designer steroid that changed the way professional sports work forever. Nothing that should disqualify you from rewriting a team's training plan, or being an assistant coach, of course.

Romanowski initially had his sights set on the head coaching job, don'tcha know, and apparently went all out for it.

He even tried to persuade Bowlen to let him interview for the head coaching job after Shanahan was fired, creating an elaborate 30-page PowerPoint presentation.

Allow me a second on this one.

First off, "pages" is a really weird way to measure the length of a PowerPoint presentation, which are made up of slides. If all that means is 30 slides, then that didn't necessarily take very long to make, nor would it really say anything.

However, PowerPoint's printing options allow you to put up to 9 slides on a page, so theoretically a "30-page PowerPoint" could have 270 slides. Pat Bowlen is a mega-millionaire who lives a life of privilege and just fired the best coach my favorite team has ever had. But if he had to sit through Romo giving him a 270-slide PowerPoint presentation (can you imagine?), then I feel genuinely sorry for the man.

Second, I'm really not sure what the point of a PowerPoint presentation is in regards to getting an NFL head coaching job. I mean, I suppose if you think your approach to say, nutrition, is really cutting-edge, but you still wish to come off as generally unimaginative, then yes, PowerPoint could help you achieve that goal, but otherwise I don't get it.

You really should read the whole article because it's plenty of fun. But what really gets me about this whole thing is why Romo has or thinks he has this kind of capital with the franchise. He was pretty popular during the Super Bowl years, but was certainly behind at least Elway, T.D., Shannon Sharpe & Eddie Mac from a fanbase standpoint. Besides, after he left the Broncos, he played for the Raiders. (And he'll re-tool his PowerPoint if it helps him get a job with Oakland.) Definitely not a fan of that. Is there something I'm missing here?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think all the Super Bowl guys should come back and teach our new "child coach" something. Romo may not be the right fit but Elway for GM makes sense to me.

blaine said...

I found this whole situation hysterical. Romo was on Colin Cowherd's show on Friday trying to convince Colin that HGH should be used by NFL players because it improves their quality of life and can even extend their lives. He also pointed out (not sure if this is true or not) that there is no test for HGH in the NFL. I'm not sure I would want someone working with my team who is making statements like that.

Mike said...

David V, I sort of like where your head's at, though it can be a little cheesy when teams rely too heavily on their glory days. Then again, I miss them so much.

I remember during the big baseball investigation hearing that there was no test for HGH at the time. Google tells me that a urine test for HGH may have been developed a few months ago, though I'd believe the NFL not adopting it yet.