Somewhere pretty early in the fourth quarter, Cowboys vs Packers became unworthy of further comment. A Cowboy woodshedding of Aaron Rodgers and crew had devolved into only a matter of time so the conversation in the FoxSports booth pivoted to a far more compelling fight:
Who will be the Cowboys starting quarterback when Tony Romo returns from his broken back?
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This has been a point of contention in Dallas for weeks now, from the moment Dak Prescott won his first game in Romo’s stead and increasing in intensity with each passing week of steady, improving, winning football from the kid from Mississippi State. A couple of weeks ago, I tweeted stay with Dak.
So this is not a debate no matter what idiocy Cowboys owner Jerry Jones spews in the coming days and weeks. The participants, however, are worth noting. Troy Aikman was in the booth, as he always is, where his gravitas only increases on Cowboys topics because of his history with the star and the rings. And joining him was Bret Favre, a hero to Romo and Dak.
Aikman stepped deftly, at first, noting how lucky Dallas had been to have had Romo for all these years and then how stupid they would be to put him back in right now. He did not use the words stupid but it was what he meant. And then Favre started to agree and the only thing that saved Romo from that was Dak throwing another touchdown that needed to be analyzed.
They are right, of course.
Dak is the starter, the future, and maybe the key to finally winning another Super Bowl. You do not mess with that mojo. So the Cowboys will and should slow play Romo’s MRIs and be noncommittal on who will play until the MRIs give them no choice but to decide.
The casual dismissal of Romo feels wrong, though.
For starters, he deserves better than a hastily written eulogy based on who’s hot right now. And Dak is hot. It was not too long ago that Colin Kaepernick was the biggest thing going in the NFL, and not because of what he did during the national anthem. And now he is the failed answer to the question “what do you do when you have no other choice at quarterback and you have to play Buffalo?”
This will be Dak, not the absolute Kap cratering hopefully.
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But there will be a moment, maybe two or 20 or 50, when he will stumble and there will be doubt and critics and he is going to need a backup who can guide him and, if really bad, step in.
And that guy is not Mark Sanchez.
That guy is Tony Romo.
He is exactly who I want helping Dak, exactly who I want stepping in if Dak fails and exactly who the Cowboys should want. Yes, this will be the first time since Romo outplayed and outlasted Henson, Hutchinson, Bledsoe and other names not worth mentioning that Romo has not been The Man.
But he can do this. He has done this.
The Romo story has been told 457 times, but my favorite part bears repeating. It was training camp and I covered the team back then. And Romo was struggling, about to be cut when they headed to Oakland for a preseason game. They sent him in at the end of the game with directions to play it safe. He snuck the ball into the end zone, and I think a little into Bill Parcells’ heart.
He was an underdog for sure. He was also a fighter.
What Jerry Jones knows and what fans seem to have forgotten is the toll all that fighting took on Romo. He had to fight through bad lines and bad defenses. He paid the price with his body, with broken backs and collarbones, with punctured lungs. He singlehandedly kept them in so many games. He survived Wade Phillips and Terrell Owens and so many Jerry mistakes. And now, now that they have a coach and a line and a defense and a running game, Romo’s body is failing.
It happens like that in the NFL.
It is gone in a moment, gone without the playoff wins and Super Bowl rings you thought were sure to come. And Dak is playing so well right now that he may never give it up.
I’m just not there yet on giving up on Romo. If I am the Cowboys, I want him holding the clipboard. I want him in the meetings. I want him in the bullpen because if something goes wrong I want the guy who stepped in against Oakland and refused to give up.
And Romo has earned at least that much from the Cowboys.