With Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift dominating the coverage of Super Bowl LVIII, it should be no surprise that many fans are looking back on the tumultuous relationship between pop star Jessica Simpson and NFL quarterback Tony Romo. That relationship also disgruntled some football fans and took over the news cycle in 2008 and 2009. Here’s a look back on how that played out.
Simpson and Romo began dating in November of 2007. At the time, 27-year-old Romo was the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. Even before he began dating Simpson, there were some concerns about his performance that year – his father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in September, and he assured reporters that he was still focused on his career. He signed a six-year contract extension with the Cowboys that October for $67.5 million. His season started out strong.
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Meanwhile, in the fall of 2007, 27-year-old Simpson was also on shaky footing. Her fifth studio album, A Public Affair, had not done well and her rom-com Employee of the Month was panned as well. In December of 2006, she made headlines when she was hired to perform “9 to 5” at the Kennedy Center Awards but forgot the lyrics in the middle of the performance. Simpson’s on-again, off-again relationship with John Mayer ended for good in May of 2007.
It’s not clear how Simpson and Romo met, but fans and the media were quick to condemn the relationship. She was nicknamed “Yoko Romo,” and was blamed by many pundits for Romo’s declining performance on the field that season. Many reports attributed these complaints to Romo’s teammates.
The relationship became such a point of public interest that former President George W. Bush even commented on it in 2008. When that year’s Super Bowl winners, the New York Giants, visited the White House, Bush joked: “We’re going to send Jessica Simpson to the Democratic National Convention.” This phenomenon was also referred to as “The Jessica Jinx” by some.
Simpson and Romo finally broke up in July of 2009, and both went on to see career resurgences. It wasn’t until years later that Simpson revealed why they split. In her 2020 memoir Open Book, she claimed that Romo had found evidence that Simpson was still in contact with Mayer – which she said was true. She said that they broke up on the eve of her 29th birthday.
With a pop star romance like this one in recent memory, perhaps it’s no surprise that the relationship between Swift and Kelce has caused such a controversy. On Thursday, comedian Keegan Michael Key joked about it in his monologue at the NFL Honors ceremony. He said: “But, you know, Travis Kelce isn’t the first NFL player to have a relationship with a pop star. There’s Russ [Russell Wilson] and Ciara. There was Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson. And of course, Peyton Manning and Brad Paisley.”
Super Bowl LVIII kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET on CBS. You can also stream the broadcast here on Paramount+. Swift will be in the stands cheering for Kelce once again.
