Spittin’ Image All Wet Denver’S Romanowski Works At Shedding His Bad-Boy Label
For Bill Romanowski, Tuesday’s Super Bowl XXXIII media day was considerably more relaxing than the one a year ago in San Diego.
That one was about as enjoyable as a root canal. It came just a month after the Denver Broncos linebacker got caught on television spitting in the face of San Francisco 49ers wide receiver J.J. Stokes.
Wave after wave of reporters and cameramen surrounded his interview perch and grilled him over and over and over about the incident. He gritted his teeth and apologized again and again and again, and repeatedly said there was no excuse for what he did. Then he went out and helped the 13-point-underdog Broncos slay the Green Bay Packers.
Tuesday, though, reporters came with bouquets rather than rubber hoses. They wanted to talk about Romanowski’s quest for a fourth Super Bowl ring. They wanted to talk about his second Pro Bowl invitation in the last three years.
They wanted to talk about how he and the rest of the Broncos’ defense planned to stop the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
“I had nobody to blame but myself for that whole thing,” Romanowski said. “What I did was wrong. And I paid the price.”
He was slapped with a $7,500 fine by the league for spitting on Stokes. But that was a drop in the bucket compared to the damage it did to his reputation.
“I didn’t want to look like I was some arrogant guy that doesn’t have a conscience,” he said. ”It really bothered me to have people write bad things about me, because that had never happened before.”
The bad publicity took its toll on Romanowski. A negative profile on him last May in Sports Illustrated caused him more pain than any below-the-waist block. But the 32-year-old linebacker rebounded to have perhaps the best season of his career. He finished third on the team in tackles, had a career-best seven sacks, had two interceptions, forced three fumbles and recovered three others.
“That really bothered Bill,” said Broncos defensive coordinator Greg Robinson. “I just told him to be himself. Don’t be what people are trying to make you be. As long as you’re being yourself and you’re being genuine, don’t worry about all that.
“I know what’s in Bill’s heart. I know what a great guy he is. What happened (with Stokes) was unfortunate. But the people who really know him know that was nothing but his gamesmanship, his feistiness. People tried to make it out to be something other than that, and it wasn’t.”
What people tried to make it out to be was racism. Romanowski is white. Stokes is black.
But color had nothing to do with it. If Stokes had been white, he still would have received a faceful of saliva. Romanowski would kneecap his mother if it would help his team win.
“Guys say they hate playing against me, but like having me on their team,” he said. “The bottom line is I just try to do whatever I can to help our team win. That’s how I play the game.
“This game is about hitting people and tackling people. Defense is about making plays. When you can knock them out of the game or affect their game, you give yourself an advantage.”
Romanowski is the master of psychological warfare. He rattled Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kordell Stewart during last year’s AFC Championship Game by getting in his face and questioning his intelligence. He taunted New York Jets wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson two weeks ago in the AFC title game.
“You’ve got to do whatever you can to get them out of their game,” Romanowski said. “You tell them they’re no good. You tell them they’re awful. You tell them whatever it takes to get them out of their game.”
Romanowski isn’t the most beloved player in the NFL. A good many of his peers consider him to be a dirty player, which makes his Pro Bowl selection even more impressive.
He was fined $20,000 last year for a preseason hit on Carolina quarterback Kerry Collins. Collins suffered a broken jaw. In Miami’s playoff loss to Denver three weeks ago, Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino was so upset with a Romanowski hit that he kicked him.
“They can say whatever they want,” Romanowski said. “I don’t feel like I’m a dirty player. I just go out and play the game hard. Some people say I play it the way it’s supposed to be played.
”Defense is about hitting. It’s about knocking the you-know-what out of somebody. You never want to hurt somebody. I wish I didn’t hurt Kerry Collins. But you take those chances when you play the game.”
The 49ers gave up on Romanowski five years ago and traded him to the Eagles for third- and sixth-round draft picks. He had two solid seasons in Philadelphia, then signed as a free agent in Denver, where he has played the best football of his career.
“The first meeting I ever had with Bill, I said, `Bill, I want a confidant, I want a leader I can communicate with that will be an extension of me on the field,”’ Robinson said.
“You need those kind of people. (Safety) Steve Atwater is that kind of guy. (Cornerback) Ray Crockett is that kind of guy. But I wanted a linebacker who knew where I was coming from.
“Bill fits to a T what we were looking for. He’s a very mature football player. We’ve utilized him in a lot of ways. He’s capable of doing a lot of different things.”
Before this year, Romanowski was seldom used as a pass-rusher. Never had more than three sacks in any one season. But Robinson has frequently used him as a blitzer and he responded with those 7 sacks.
But what Romanowski does best is win. His teams have had double-figure win totals in 10 of his 11 seasons. He has a 128-48 regular-season record, 15-5 in postseason.