Whether it’s Cabo or Cancun, Tony Romo and Ted Cruz love Mexico trips at wrong time
Ted Cruz, you really should have called Tony Romo first before boarding that plane.
Just as you never go to Cabo when you’re the starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys the weekend before hosting a playoff game, you don’t go to Cancun when you’re a senator and your constituents are literally freezing to death.
Even Rush Limbaugh knew that.
Apparently they didn’t teach NFL Football History 101 at the fancy liberal elite colleges (Princeton and Harvard) from which Cruz graduated.
Although Cruz is a Texas senator, we can’t really expect him to know football history. He’s Canadian.
All Cruz had to Google was three words — “Tony Romo Cabo” — and he would’ve learned that the former quarterback’s 2008 getaway is one you can never live down.
#CancunCruz is all the rage after his fellow passengers outed him with photos of Texas’ junior senator boarding a flight on Wednesday night from Houston to Cancun. Not sure if it was Jessica Simpson’s dad who took the pictures.
The only thing that would have made this better was if Ted was escaping to California. Or Cuba.
But by Thursday morning Cruz was already spotted boarding a plane to return to Texas. Maybe he just ran out for eggs and milk.
The high temperature in Cancun on Thursday was somewhere north of 80 degrees.
Before proceeding with this history lesson, we yield to the words of the Texas senator when Cruz said this on the floor of the House on Jan. 6, 2021: “We gather together a moment of great division. At a moment of great passion.
“We have seen, and no doubt will continue to see, a great deal of moralizing from both sides of the aisle. But I would urge to both sides, perhaps, a bit less certitude.”
Thanks for the tip, but, Mr. Senator, all Dallas Cowboys fans are certain of this: Just stay home.
In 2007, the Dallas Cowboys were the best team in the NFC under first year coach Wade Phillips. They went 13-3 and had earned home-field advantage at Texas Stadium, and the first-round bye.
During that first NFC wild-card weekend, in January of 2008, Romo and then girlfriend, pop star Jessica Simpson, flew to Cabo with a few teammates for a 48-hour vacation.
Word floated that it was Simpson’s dad who alerted the celebrity magazines that the pair were in Cabo, and they were pictured doing nothing other than just relaxing. They weren’t hurting anyone.
When the travel party returned, they all learned their trip was a “story.” Not good optics for a team in the NFL playoffs.
In six days, the Cowboys were to host the New York Giants, a team they defeated twice during the regular season. Wade defended the trip, saying he thought it was good for players to get away.
This was also the same press conference where Uncle Wade famously said the Cowboys “won the bye week,” that they were already 1-0 in the playoffs despite not having played a postseason game.
He also acknowledged that if the Cowboys were to lose, the trip was going to be a big deal. He nailed it.
The Cowboys lost, 21-17, and the words “Romo” and “Cabo” have since enjoyed a nice marriage.
The Cowboys never hosted another NFC divisional playoff game again in Romo’s tenure as the starting quarterback. This was the only time they had home-field advantage throughout the playoffs when he was the starter.
The irony is his Cabo trip had nothing to do with the team losing.
As Troy Aikman would later say of this trip, “perception matters” when you’re the starting quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys.
Perception matters when you are a senator from Texas and your state is in a block of ice, and millions of Texans are suffering.
Cruz issued a statement, and explained that he was trying to be a “good dad” and took his kids because they wanted to go on a trip.
At least Tony Romo had the common sense not to blame the kids.
Not sure exactly what Cruz could have done about all of this right now, but “beach trip” is not one of them.
But add Mexican beach vacay to the list of things Tony Romo shares in common with Ted Cruz. They both live in Texas and neither won, nor reached, the big one.
This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 12:39 PM.
