Raiders' ironman keeps punishing his opponents

Bill Romanowski, who has played 242 consecutive games, thinks his love of football will keep him playing until he's 40.

By KEVIN KELLY, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 24, 2003

SAN DIEGO -- He worked too hard to let a 102-degree fever stop him.

It was the first game of Bill Romanowski's senior season at Rockville High School in Vernon, Conn., and he was sick.

"He had worked on a farm that summer, picked up some kind of virus and was quite ill," said Tom Dunn, who's coached the Rockville football team the past 24 seasons. "But he went out and made 17 of the first 20 tackles in that game. He was stopping dives, stopping sweeps, stopping screens, getting back and stopping the long bomb.

"Was he intimidating? Yeah, he was intimidating."

Dunn has set aside a few hours Sunday evening to tune his black-and-white television to Super Bowl XXXVII. Forget the glitz. Dunn will watch for the grit, to see Romanowski still intimidating the opposition all these years later.

The Raiders' 36-year-old linebacker, who's trying to join former 49er and Cowboy Charles Haley as the only players to win five Super Bowls, has forged a reputation as one of the dirtiest players in the NFL.

"What's he like? Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," Oakland defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan said. "I'm telling you, the guy is incredible. He's all business during the week, but when he cuts loose on Sunday, there's a different look in his eyes. I'm glad he's on our side. I really am."

A fitness freak who totes a tackle box filled with vitamins and supplements everywhere he goes and washes them down with a jug of purified water, Romanowski has defied age.

He wants to play until he's at least 40.

"At this point it's not about money," said Romanowski, a two-time Pro Bowl player. "You don't play this long in the league and perform like I do when you're playing for money. You've got to play for something else.

"I play for the love of the game. I love this game. I respect this game and feel it's a privilege to be able to take the field."

The Super Bowl will extend his consecutive-games played streak to 243, an amazing feat considering he plays like a bull rumbling through the streets of Pamplona.

Instead of daredevils clad in a white shirts, white slacks and a red bandana, Romanowski chases quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers in hopes of goring them with punishing hits.

"That's what we're trained to do. We are trained to hit people as hard as we can hit people," he said. "You just realize playing this game that there's always a chance you can get injured out on that football field.

"Do you go out and try to injure somebody? Absolutely not. You just realize that's part of the game."

But there are times when Romanowski's intensity, which builds from a smolder to an inferno on game days, has exceeded the allowable limit.

The NFL has fined him $70,000 throughout his 15-year career.

"I don't think he deliberately tries to give cheap shots or tries to hurt anybody," Bucs center Jeff Christy said. "But if it happens, it happens."

Romanowski's most high-profile offenses seemed to come while with the Broncos in 1997.

In a preseason game between Denver and the Giants, Romanowski broke quarterback Kerry Collins' jaw. He sparked a racial debate when he spit in 49ers wide receiver J.J. Stokes' face on Monday Night Football. Steelers quarterback Kordell Stewart got an earful from Romanowski during the playoffs.

"I was on that San Francisco team when we played Denver," Raiders defensive back Rod Woodson said. "Does everybody remember what happened in 1997? I was on that team so my image of Romanowski was shot.

"But it's different because he is a good guy. He is intense on game day, but you need to be intense."

Only the guys who play or have played with Romanowski, who apologized for the incidents in 1997 and vowed to never let such transgressions happen in the future, can dub him a good guy.

"He's insane," Oakland wide receiver Tim Brown said. "I thought he was a crazy, a guy I would avoid on the street. But I love him now."

There is no better player suited for the Raiders us-against-the-world mentality than Romanowski, who immediately called owner Al Davis during the offseason when the Broncos asked him to be a backup this season.

Davis wasn't available to take Romanowski's call. He left a message: tell Davis that he wanted to help the Raiders win a Super Bowl. Oakland signed Romanowski on Feb.27.

"People say it's my style of play," he said. "I have the reputation of what a Raider player is all about. So not only am I one of the most hated players in the league, I'm on one of the most hated teams. So it seems to be a great fit."

Dunn, however, believes Romanowski's reputation as a dirty player is unfair.

"I'm 61 years old and grew up idolizing Sam Huff and people along those lines. Those were tough football players," he said. "I think what Billy is is he's very much a throwback to those days. He's the type of linebacker that Vince Lombardi would have loved."