http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4799261

Skip Bayless argument starts approximately 1min 15secs into the video

Willie Grady
Dr. Thibodeau
Georgia Perimeter College
11-24-2010
Skip Bayless Romo or McNabb
My argument was based on a group of analysts’ opinions pertaining to who they thought was the better quarterback and gave their respective team the best chance to win an upcoming football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys. Their argument focused in on the quarterback position and pitched Donovan McNabb against an up and coming player Tony Romo. Although the argument was opinionated from both angles by three different analysts, I chose to focus in on the views of Skip Bayless. Skip Bayless is a sports writer and an analyst for ESPN and co-stars on a segment called 1st and Ten that airs everyday Monday thru Friday. He argues daily against other critics, players, and sometimes even entertainers like Nelly and Lil Wayne.
Skip starts his argument by stating that Tony Romo has grown up.
“Twice I have watched him out play Donovan McNabb this year. He seems far more confident against Philly’s defense than Donovan seems against Wade Phillips defense (which is the Dallas Cowboys head coach and defensive coordinator). And finally, if the last five games haven’t given you any evidence in the maturation of Tony Romo look at these numbers. He’s completing 72.4 percent of his passes over the last five games. He has nine touchdowns to just two interceptions which both came on tip balls.”
He goes on to speak about Tony Romo passing his visual assessment and how he thinks Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys will beat the Philadelphia Eagles.
Skip’s argument for Tony Romo was concise and to the point. He basically had four premises that supported the conclusion of his argument with his first premise implying his second premise. His argument could be paraphrased as follows.
1. Skip’s first premise was that he felt that Romo had grown up and matured as a NFL quarterback.
2. He argues for Tony Romo’s stats being an indicator of this maturation stating that Romo only had two interception and nine touchdowns with the two interceptions coming on tipped passes. Also, Romo was completing 72.4 percent of his passes over that time period which was his last five games.
3. Skip says after watching Romo play against Donovan McNabb and the Philadelphia Eagles, he thought Romo outplayed McNabb at the quarterback position.
4. Mr. Bayless believed Romo looked more confident against the Philadelphia Eagles defense than Donovan McNabb appeared against Wade Phillips Dallas Cowboy defense.
C. Bayless was picking Tony Romo and the Cowboys to win the wild card playoff game versus McNabb and the Eagles established basically on the trust factor and who was playing better at the moment.
I found Skip’s argument to be a Serious Condition. At first appearance it seems to be a healthy argument because all of his premises support his conclusion. Upon further review one could make a case that he committed the fallacy of Hasty Generalization. In my opinion I think Donovan McNabb is a better quarterback than Tony Romo based on their careers and body of work to that point in their careers. Skip’s argument was basically him comparing who was playing better over the previous month or so. At that point in time Romo had never won a playoff game and his counterpart Donovan McNabb had been to four NFC Championship games and led his team to a Super Bowl appearance. So for Mr. Bayless to base his entire argument over such a small percentage of time and games I found it to be quite a drastic approach.