Christie's a sideshow; Romo's the real deal

Despising the Dallas Cowboys never really goes out of vogue around here. The needle on the hate-o-meter just fluctuates based on how well or poorly the team that Jerry Jones bought is playing.

With the Cowboys having already dethroned the Eagles as NFC East champions and set to play in an NFC divisional playoff game in Green Bay on Sunday, this is obviously a time in which the needle is tilting to the far right.

Speaking of the right, Gov. Christie, a lifelong lover of the Cowboys despite being a lifelong resident of the less-vegetative northern end of the Garden State, has added a unique twist to the Dallas disdain. Dressed in a pumpkin-orange sweater, the governor keeps showing up as an invited guest in Jones' private box.

It started at a New York Giants home game in the governor's home state in late November and became a local story Dec. 14 when he was caught on camera celebrating with Jones when the Cowboys beat the Eagles in a critical game at Lincoln Financial Field.

Christie has been to a total of five Cowboys games and Dallas has won them all. He said he plans to be in attendance again when the Cowboys play the Packers at Lambeau Field. I'd vote for him as the next president if he sat shirtless on the metal bleachers with a blue star painted on his stomach.

Christie has simultaneously become the Cowboys' good-luck charm and the subject of much ridicule from both ends of the state that voted him into office. Some Republicans have lauded his allegiance to the Cowboys despite the risk of alienating the people in his home state. Todd Christie has used social media to invite all non-Cowboys fans bad-mouthing his brother to "GET A LIFE!!!"

Alienating any of his home state voters to show his NFL loyalty was an idiotic political move that could have been avoided. All he had to do was root for the Cowboys from the quiet comfort of the governor's mansion.

Instead, Christie became the most photographed Cowboys fan since Jessica Simpson, which segues nicely into our next point. The worst thing about the governor's perpetual countenance at Cowboys games is that it's taking away from the performance of the team's quarterback.

Love him or hate him, Tony Romo, the former beau to Simpson, should have earned the respect of all NFL fans with the way he performed this season. Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers, with 38 touchdown passes and just five interceptions, is likely to be the league MVP, but Romo, with a league-best 69.9 completion percentage and an NFL-leading 113.2 passer rating, deserves to be in the conversation.

Romo, 34, has been a really good quarterback for a really long time. He's not a Hall of Famer at this point in his career and he does have a history of some ill-timed mistakes.

The Cowboys' come-from-behind win over Detroit Sunday was just the second playoff victory of Romo's career, but it was also the 28th time in his career he has orchestrated a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter.

According to profootballreference.com, Romo ranks 18th all-time in that category. Romo is also tied for 14th all-time with 24 fourth-quarter comebacks.

By the time he is finished playing, he is likely to be ahead of Joe Montana and Brett Favre in that department. Romo ranks sixth all-time with a 65.2 completion percentage and is second only to Rodgers with an all-time passer rating of 97.6.

Not bad for a guy who was undrafted out of Eastern Illinois.

Romo has also shown considerable toughness this season and class throughout his entire career. He missed just one game after suffering two broken bones in his back in a Week 8 loss to Washington. The Cowboys are 7-1 since his return.

In 2008, he stopped along a Texas highway after Dallas' season-opening game against New Orleans and helped an elderly couple change a flat tire. Later the same year, he bought a movie ticket for a homeless man and sat with him in the theater. He also purchased tickets to an Eagles-Vikings playoff game in 2009 to prevent the game from being blacked out in Minnesota.

Romo is a good guy and a good quarterback. Much more attention should be paid to him Sunday than the look-at-me governor of New Jersey.