Taking His Medicine

Nor, we suspect, did Ray Nitschke go home after a tough day at the office and serenade his family on the guitar, as Romo does. "It's a great way for him to relax," says Julie. "His job is so high-pressure." On the evening of his 32nd birthday, Bill and Julie treated a visitor to a duet of Eric Clapton's Wonderful Tonight. They hit few false notes.

That unexpected performance was no more surreal than those that take place when the Lemieuxs drop by. Claude Lemieux, a right wing for the Colorado Avalanche, and his wife, Deborah, are close friends of the Romanowskis. It is easy to see why Bill and Claude were drawn to each other: As one of the most hated players in his league, Lemieux is the NHL equivalent of Romanowski. Learning that they hang out together is like discovering that Muammar Gaddafi and Radovan Karadzic share a villa in Tuscany. Do Claude and Bill talk shop—trading secrets, perhaps, about how to bite one's opponent and get away with it—over brandy and cigars? As far as we know, no. Says Julie, "Bill plays guitar, and Claude sings along."

The Avalanche were on the road, so the Lemieuxs could not attend Romo's birthday celebration. Instead, Bill and Julie met some teammates and their wives—plus Huntington and Roskopf—at a steak house. In deference to the occasion, Huntington pushed the next morning's workout back from 8 to 10:30.

Appearing at the party was Denver wide-out Ed McCaffrey, a recent conscript to Romo's regimen who had missed that day's sessions to preside over his son's play group, for which Brister savaged him mercilessly. While McCaffrey defended himself, his wife, Lisa, provided the evening's highlight when she read a hilariously bawdy poem about Romanowski that she had written. After taking a number of deliriously cruel potshots at an array of characters, including Collins, Stewart, Romo and Julie, the unofficial Bard of the Broncos wrapped up her presentation with a sincere sentiment shared by a city still glowing from its first NFL title:

All kidding aside, today's a great day.
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