Can Romo’s Peg Fit Into a Star-Shaped Hole?
by Tyson Torres
Is Romo a bust teetering on the waiver wire, or a stud waiting to break out on the world’s largest stage? The truth is, he may be a little of both.
He was the anointed one, the belated heir-apparent to Troy Aikman, the savior from mediocrity of a once-proud franchise whose designation as “America’s Team” had seemed more jocular than genuine.
It’s October in Dallas. It’s Tony Romo’s time of year.
The man clearly has some skills. He threw for over 4,200 yards and 36 touchdowns during the 2007 season, far higher into the statistical stratosphere than the likes of such storied Cowboys field generals as Troy Aikman and even Roger Staubach had ever reached.
The difference? They won. And they did it in January, not October. Why can’t Romo pull off the big win when it counts?
Cowboys Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett recently told Fox Sports Radio, “I don’t know why on God’s Earth Tony Romo has been anointed a superstar in the National Football League.” Dorsett wasn’t being disloyal to the franchise that made him a star. He was speaking his mind and being honest in a way not often heard among the handler-heavy luminaries of the football firmament. Maybe he has a point.
Stats alone a quarterback do not make. Just ask Steve Young, whose stellar regular-season record and record-setting performances for the San Francisco 49ers were overshadowed by the multitude of Lombardi trophies resting in the bosom of über-champion Joe Montana, at least until his 49ers broke into the Cowboy’s early-nineties Aikman-led dynasty in 1994. Or ask Danny White, who never won a championship for Dallas and, despite racking up gaudy numbers, remains to this day a footnote beneath the towering Cowboys marquee featuring names like Aikman and Staubach. In this league, winners are recognized both for what they are and, sometimes, for what they’re not.
There are times when Romo makes Cowboys fans want to pull the Cowboys’ star off of their beer coolers. In this season’s huge stadium-opening extravaganza against the division rival New York Giants, Romo turned in a performance worthy of star-pulling to be sure. A 127-yard, three-interception monstrosity, the game was characterized by some as a clinical study in quarterbacking ineptitude. Romo’s abysmal 29.6 passer rating was the second worst of his entire career.
Still, he did something after the game seldom seen in today’s epidemic of galactic egos: he took full responsibility for the loss. Not just his performance, but for the game itself. Tony Romo didn’t lose the game, the Dallas Cowboys did (and, incidentally, by only a two-point margin). He clearly wants to win, and he clearly takes it hard when his team doesn’t. You won’t see Romo laughing on the sidelines during a loss like that one, unlike some players who are paid higher salaries and are drafted higher in fantasy-football drafts. He’s a sportsman to be sure, but is he a winner?
That remains to be seen. The occasion is when Tony Romo is the best player on the field, willing his team to victory. Take his giant-slaying performance in his first home start, a 2006 win against the then-undefeated Indianapolis Colts, wherein Romo’s completion percentage was an eye-popping 82.6%. He capped two touchdown-scoring drives with another drive to run out the clock to beat the eventual Superbowl champions. Or last season’s victory against the New York Giants, when Romo battled through a lower back contusion and connected with nine different receivers, finishing 20-of-30 for 244 yards and two touchdowns. Those are the kind of games that make Cowboys fans want to tattoo the Cowboys’ star onto their foreheads.
Maybe Dorsett has it right. Maybe our expectations have been too high, and we simply need to lower them. Or maybe Tony Romo will rise to the occasion this year and become what everybody once thought he already was.
A winner.
Fantastic piece…extremely well written. I would like to know your honest opinion on somethig though, how much of Romo's early success can be attributed to the fact that he has as a primary receiver the great Terrell Owens? Pariah that he is, T.O. is arguably the 2nd or 3rd best WR that has ever played the game. Period. Without Terrell for opposing defenses to worry about, Romo and his buddy Witten have been quite pedestrian…heck in some cases they have been downright bad. What say you?
There is no question that the loss of Terrell Owens has disrupted the Cowboys passing game. Roy Williams is no T.O., neither in talent, presence, or durability. Still, Owens is past his prime and the dropoff in production would still have been precipitous, though not as much as has been either for Owens under Dick Jauron's pathetic offense or for Romo this year without him. As to whether Owens is the second- or third-best receiver *ever*, you are correct: that is VERY arguable.
Okay…Jerry Rice is the best ever…I'm sure we agree on that. Who is hands down better than Terrell Owens? Seriously. By the way, Owens past his prime is better than 95% of WRs in the NFL right now. The only receivers that I would say are better than him now in his 35th year of life are Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Calvin Johnson, Randy Moss, and maybe Carolina's Steve Smith.
One more thing. You say that Romo wants to win…of course that's true. However, ask any athlete who has played any sport at a really high level, wanting to win simply isn't good enough. Everybody wants to win. The problem is that Romo doesn't hate to lose. To be great in sports, the very concept of losing has to be something that is absolutely loathsome and repugnant in the mind of the athlete. Romo doesn't feel like that. What did Romo say after the playooff loss against New York season before last? After he was asked how he felt after such a horrible loss at home, he said '…well…I get paid millions of dollars to play play football…if the biggest thing I have to worry about is losing a game, then I've had a pretty good life…' He was supposed to be furious, and he wasn't. Michael Jordan hated to lose. Magic Johnson hated to lose. Roger Staubach hated to lose. Troy Aikman hated to lose. Michael Irvin hated to lose. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hated to lose. Kobe Bryant hates to lose. Romo…not so much. He is a very gracious, good loser. And if you show me a good loser, I'll show you a loser.
We can't get inside the man's head. We can only observe what happens on the field and his reactions to it. Ultra-competitive people may be the greatest winners, but not necessarily the happiest, The question every man has to ask himself–particularly a man in the most important position in professional sports–is, 'just how far do I want to take this?' Those who are willing to go as far as it takes are crowned by the thrill of victory. Those who are content to earn a hero's salary without a willingness to go as far as it takes, they're a dime a dozen. That's the question still open on Romo. Which of the two categories does he belong to? For some, it remains to be seen. For others, it's a foregone conclusion. I think we all know which camp you belong to.
Tyson. Stop it. For real. You know I'm commenting on what we have all seen from Romo, and his reactions. And let's be completely honest. Jerry Jones isn't paying the starlet-chaser to be happy. He is paying him to be a winner. Romo knew that he was taking the most visible job in American sports. He knew what was expected of him by the owner and the fans when he signed that contract and took that multi-million dollar signing bonus. You are right though, every man has to ask himself "just how far do I want to take this?". That is completely true. The problem is this, Romo took the money like he had already answered the question, and since that's the case the answer to that question should be obvious to everyone by now.
Romo is an ingrate that has no more excuses, and until he proves otherwise he is nothing without a receiver on the outside that makes the game easy for him. He is so far from great right now it is humorous (part of being great is recognize what helps you reach that status) Well #9 has been a joke this season, and even in the games the cowboys won (romos so called good games) his numbers have been inflated, and masked by players adjusting to terrible passes, and defenses blowing coverages. Romo will get no pass from me until he makes second and third tier WR look good (like Manning does Pierre Gason) and not the other way around. Yes the terrible route running Miles Austin and the running game has bailed Romo out tremendously.
The only thing that I can give Romo right now is that he told the truth about the Giants game. That one is on him. You disagreed in your write up, but that is true. The cowboys are 5 Romo turnovers from 5-0. Yes his turnovers took both games from his teammates. Him, and him alone, because if they didnt happen we beat the Giants and the Broncos.