Contact

Let's start with the headline: "Romo breaks his collarbone in loss to Giants." To read that, you might expect that Dallas quarterback Tony Romo threw a ball so hard that it snapped his clavicle. Or in some fit of pique, he reached up and collapsed his own shoulders around his neck, causing his collarbone to break. In reality, New York linebacker Michael Boley, all six-foot three and two hundred and twenty-three pounds of him, ran at full speed and landed on top of the Cowboys' field general. Tony Romo, according to Boley, "let out a little scream." This was how the weekend of the National Football League scrutinizing "hard hits" ended. Boley was not penalized or flagged for driving Romo into the turf. This is, after all, a contact sport.
Because, sports fans, it was a "legal hit." We watch the game to see the extraordinary physical feat: the fingertip catch, the ninety yard runback, and yes, even the occasional teeth-rattling "snot bubble." As long as it's legal. That's what made Brett Favre the man he is today, hobbling about, throwing interceptions and grimacing in pain, but still almost leading his team to victory. It is what we are paying him to do.
Of course, speaking of "hits," we aren't paying for him to hit on female employees of the NFL. This kind of contact will get you a call to the commissioner's office, and maybe a few game's suspension. Contrast this to the six to eight weeks that Tony Romo is expected to miss as a result of the on-the-field activity he found himself in, and you wonder just exactly where the priorities of our great nation have fallen. Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, received a six game suspension for sexual assault. Not on him, but by him. This ruling was then backed off to just four games, because he was "contrite."
For his part, Tony Romo was contrite as well. With his arm in a sling. Michael Boley? He'll be showing up on highlight reels for the next few days.