Chris Cooley explains his Tony Romo comments

Tony Romo is used to having a target on his back - and this week the Dallas quarterback has taken a lot of heat (most recently from Deion Sanders) for his miscues as the Cowboys squandered a big lead against the Lions.


For all his talent, the Cowboys quarterback has come up short in big games - and he's 3-7 in his last 10 starts. So it's predictable (and boring) when sports analysts and fans pile on the critiques.


But now an opposing player, Redskins' tight end Chris Cooley, has joined the fray - and he isn't holding back.


So Chris, what did you think of Romo's struggles on Sunday?


"It's so good," Cooley said on the LaVar Arrignton and Chad Dukes show. "I was watching the scoreboard in St. Louis, and I didn't see that they'd lost really until they end, I thought they blew them out so I kind of stopped paying attention. It's amazing, amazing to watch him choke like that.


"I'm just saying, I'm up 24 points in the third quarter, if I'm the head coach, I feel like I could probably just take a knee for the rest of the game, punt it away and there's no way that Detroit's gonna drive on you that many times," Cooley added. "The only way you're gonna give up that many points is turnovers, right? It's hilarious to watch him throw pick sixes, too, back-to-back. I loved it."


Tell us how you really feel, Chris. But the talkative tight end didn't stop there. He actually followed up on with a strange proposition that he had floated a week before on the radio show: a cagefight.


“It’s been actually pretty funny today,” Cooley told Traina, when asked if this thing is actual personal. “I’m getting murdered, MURDERED, by Cowboys fans, which is perfectly fine with me.


“No, there’s no personal thing with Tony Romo. I do a radio show with Chad Dukes and LaVar Arrington every Monday and we joke around and we have some fun, and they kind of ask me questions. People really are surprised when I just talk like a regular person, I guess. I mean, I’m a fan of the game and I’m a guy that cheers for the Redskins. Now, if you wanted me to go on a radio show and say everything politically correct and be boring, I mean, I have no problem doing that. I obviously have the ability to do that. But we just went on and had a little bit of fun.


“They said did I like watching him choke, and yeah, of course I liked watching him choke. An the biggest [criticism] was they beat us last week. Well, obviously. But I still enjoyed that the Cowboys lost [to the Lions]. I play for the Washington Redskins. I don’t see why anyone would think that I wouldn’t enjoy that.”


Then came the matter of the cage fight, which was obviously pure farce to begin with, unless your brain has secretly been replaced by a pumpkin, or you’re a Cowboys fan.


“It’s funny though, a lot of people on the cage match thing said that it’s not a fair fight, why wouldn’t I challenge [Jay] Ratliff or DeMarcus Ware,” Cooley said. “And then they listed weights, Tony Romo at 228 and me at 255. Well, I weighed 231 today, so I think we’re gonna make the same weight....


“The other funny thing that I got a kick out of was how many regular fans on Twitter challenged me to a cage match. Ok, unless you’re a UFC cage fighter or a pretty good athlete, that’s not a very good challenge for you as a fan. I’m gonna win....It’s amazing to me, just to say the word cage fight and Tony Romo, how insane people get about offending beloved Tony.”


Like I said, he’s keeping me gainfully employed. If you want actual justification, here’s Cooley, when asked with whom he’d actually like to fight in a cage.


“Honestly, I don’t care, but yeah, would it be fun to have a match against someone with the Cowboys or the Eagles or the Giants? Yes, that’s what would be most reasonable,” Cooley said. No, I wouldn’t pick somebody like Ratliff, who’s gonna absolutely destroy me, because he’s 100 pounds more than me. Obviously I’m not gonna pick that....


“I don’t know, I try to have fun and I try to goof around a little bit, and I thin when things get printed, the hint of sarcasm goes away and the hint of joking goes away and it becomes like a serious challenge. And you think ‘Oh my gosh, just chill out for two seconds and laugh.’ I work in the entertainment business. I’m joking around on the radio, I’m not honestly talking trash to Tony Romo or the Cowboys.”