There’s this weird trend in which an NFL player retires, and folks immediately wonder when he’s coming back. Sometimes when a player retires, he’s doing so because he wants to retire.

When Tony Romo retired to join CBS this offseason, most of the coverage was speculation about when he’d come back. There was even a report that there was a “100 percent” chance Romo would play again. Then when Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers got injured, another wave of Romo return speculation started.

It’s all so ridiculous.

Romo yet again had to explain that he’s staying in one of the best jobs in sports media — one he’s incredibly good at, by the way — instead of coming back midseason to a violent sport at age 37. This time he let Peter King of The MMQB know that he’s done. Finished. Not coming back. Please, listen to the man.

“I don’t really think about that,” Romo told King. “When I make a choice — and I bet it was the same with [Cris] Collinsworth and [Troy] Aikman — you know how much effort goes into it. You gotta give everything you got to this. You can’t fake things. You gotta be yourself. You always hope people enjoy it. The goal is to talk to the guy having a beer next to you, just explain the game. And if I can do that, I’ve done my job.”

It would probably be better if we believed a player is retiring when he says he wants to retire. It never made any sense to assume Romo wasn’t being sincere. Romo has suffered some major injuries in his career. He presumably got paid very well by CBS and had a great job. He knew when he retired that he could have waited it out and eventually been the starting quarterback for the Houston Texans (Romo’s retirement worked out well for them) or the Denver Broncos (well … ). Instead, he made a move to a job he can do for 20 years without worrying about having his collarbone broken. Why was that so hard to believe?

Romo isn’t going anywhere, and that’s a good thing. He was a great player, but now he’s a great announcer and we get to enjoy him in that role. Though we’ll probably still be sitting around in 2021, and when New York Jets quarterback Baker Mayfield gets hurt someone will wonder on social media, “Could the Jets get Tony Romo out of retirement?”

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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