RUSH: I want to take you back to Sunday. Mr. Snerdley, listen up. Stop screening calls. I want you to hear this. Because I knew it was going to happen. On Sunday, the late game, I’m watching it on the airplane. I had arrived in New York; I’m watching it in my apartment in New York. I’m watching the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys. Tony Romo, the quarterback of the Cowboys, is having the worst game of his season, perhaps the second worst game of his career. The first worst game of his career was also against the Eagles and last year in Dallas. The two games had something in common. Last year, his girlfriend of the moment, Carrie Underwood, was in a luxury skybox looking down and waving. Sunday, Romo’s new babe, Jessica Simpson, was in the skybox looking down and waving, and she had on a Cowboys jersey with pink number nine on it, which is Romo’s number, and pink sleeves in place of the Dallas cowboy blue sleeves. They cut to her many times, the TV cameras did, while Romo is having a horrible outing. At halftime — because I am so observant, it’s frightening — at halftime, the camera watches Romo walking to the locker room off the field, and they stick with him for quite a while. He keeps looking up into it stands, then looks back to where he’s going to. He looks up in the stands; looks back to where he’s going. He looks up in the stands, and gives a wave. I said, ‘This kid, his mind is not in the game. He’s up there looking for Jessica!’ Well, it wasn’t just me that noticed this, ladies and gentlemen. Yesterday on ESPN, Terrell Owens did a phone interview.
OWENS: (phone quality) Right now Jessica Simpson is not a fan favorite —
REPORTERS: (laughing)
OWENS: — in this locker room or in Texas Stadium.
REPORTER: Why not in this locker room?
OWENS: I mean, this — I mean, I think with everything that has happened and obviously the way Tony played and the comparison between her and Carrie Underwood, and, you know, I think a lot of people still like, she’s kind of taking the focus away, this and that. I mean she was — she was hot on my list ’til last — ’til last week.
REPORTERS: (laughter)
REPORTER: Do what you do, but you want to be on TV but not inside the newspaper.
OWENS: Oh, I got a message for her when we make the playoffs: Just stay tuned.
RUSH: ‘I got a message for her when we make the playoffs: Just stay tuned.’ Knew this was going to happen. I knew it was gonna be right. Romo was going to get blamed for having Jessica there; she was going to get blamed for distracting him. I have a theory about all this, but I’m not going to share it, because it’s pop culture BS, and I’m not going to mess with it. (interruption) I’m not… Well, I talked a little bit about it yesterday when I was discussing fame and how some people, they just come from humble backgrounds. The kid, he’s from Eastern Illinois University, for crying out loud! I don’t even think it exists anymore. You know, he’s an average, ordinary, run-of-the-mill guy, solid guy, but fame makes him think he’s launched himself into some new stratosphere — and the actress babes? The actress babes are looking not for anything other than getting noticed themselves. When your career is being noticed and you gotta do things to get noticed, you don’t have a lot of substance there.
That’s as far as I’m going to go with this, because I don’t know Romo and I could be dead wrong about this. I don’t know Jessica Simpson. I do know that Romo the night before the game — this is highly unusual, folks; you know the NFL — he went out to dinner with Jessica Simpson to a sushi place with his parents. Now, the pregame meal is the next day. Pregame meal is either four or five hours before the game, depending on the team. Everybody has different philosophies. But Saturday night, you are supposed to be with the team in the hotel going over final game plan adjustments and so forth. Now, he might have gone back to the hotel. I’m really speaking out of school here. I love Romo; he has got a great future. I just knew this was going to happen. I just knew it was going to happen. Tom Brady found a way. He’s dating Gisele ‘Bunnyhunch,’ the model; apparently she’s not a distraction, but I don’t think she goes to the games. Well, I take that back. She did go to one game in Miami when the Patriots’ wives went down earlier this year, and she was out dancing the night away with the Patriots’ wives, while the team was in the hotel making final adjustments to cream the Dolphins the next day.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Jimmy in Decatur, Illinois, we’re going to start with you on the phones today, get something out of the way, welcome to the program, sir.
CALLER: Dittos from the Land O’ Lincoln, El Rushbo.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: I gotta tell you, I’m one of your biggest fans out here, but today, brother, you really stepped in it when you said Eastern Illinois, are they even still a university? Eastern Illinois is kind of like what we consider in central Illinois, it’s been a quarterback factory for a long time. Mike Shanahan, Sean Payton, and now Tony Romo are all —
RUSH: I wasn’t putting it down.
CALLER: Okay. All right.
RUSH: No, you misunderstood. You misunderstood. I’m talking about if somebody comes out of Eastern Illinois, he’s an average, just solid guy. He’s not some playboy running around.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH: I was not criticizing the school. I might have said I don’t know if it’s still there because I remember somebody discussing Romo once, and I was confusing him with Dave Craig. Dave Craig came out of school in Wisconsin that’s no longer there.
CALLER: Yeah. Yeah. And, real quick, I just want to give you a name, a redshirt freshman from a little tiny town, Maroa, Illinois. He’s at Eastern now. His name is Luke Hockaday. Remember that name, Rush. Write it down. He’s going to follow in the footsteps of those other three.
RUSH: All right, hang on.
CALLER: Luke Hockaday from Maroa, Illinois, a great kid. He’s a redshirt freshman. He’ll be played there next year. He’s been there with them all year.
RUSH: All right, H-o-c-k-a-d-a-y, right?
CALLER: You got it.
RUSH: Luke Hockaday, he’s a quarterback?
CALLER: Yes, sir.
RUSH: Luke Hockaday, redshirt quarterback. Okay, I wrote it down.
CALLER: Hey, we love you out here, keep up the good work.
RUSH: I will, Jimmy. By the way, do you know that Decatur is the original home of what NFL team?
CALLER: It’s the original home of the Chicago what was called the Staley-Bears.
RUSH: That’s right.
CALLER: That is correct.
RUSH: It was the Decatur Staleys named after a guy named Staley who owned an automobile dealership, right?
CALLER: I believe that’s correct. I believe that’s right.
RUSH: Yes, that is correct. There’s no ‘believing’ about it; it is correct. I know my American history. I’ve gotta take a brief time-out in the nick of time, ladies and gentlemen: Luke Hockaday, redshirt freshman, Eastern Illinois.