Fans yell to Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo as he walks off the field after a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFL football game at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017, in Philadelphia. The Eagles won the game 27-13. (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News)

Fans yell to Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo as he walks off the field after a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in an NFL football game at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017, in Philadelphia. The Eagles won the game 27-13. (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News)

In October 2010, New York Giants linebacker Michael Boley drilled Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo as he released a pass to receiver Miles Austin. Boley drove Romo into the ground and landed on top of him, breaking his clavicle.

Medical staff rushed to aid Romo: “Is it your collarbone?” one asked the quarterback as he lay on the turf. Romo ignored the question: “Did [Austin] catch the pass?”

The answer was yes, but Dallas subsequently lost its lead, then the game, and Romo’s season.

As a Texas sports writer at the time, I still remember the look on Romo’s face as he addressed reporters with his arm in a sling after the game. He spoke in quiet, somber tones but with a sense of peace.

Peace isn’t something that comes easily to the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, an iconic position filled by a string of stars over the past five decades. Don Meredith, Roger Staubach, Danny White, and Troy Aikman not only gave the Cowboys decades of stability at the position, they helped lead the team to eight Super Bowl appearances.

Over the last decade, Romo, an outspoken Christian, has set franchise records in numerous statistical categories and compiled the fourth-highest passer rating in NFL history. He’s played with broken ribs and a punctured lung and mostly without the elite supporting casts his predecessors enjoyed.

But fans and media judge Dallas quarterbacks by their number of Super Bowl rings, and Romo has none.

This season Romo had perhaps the best team of his career, but he broke a bone in his back during the preseason. While he was out, rookie Dak Prescott led the team on an 11-game winning streak—an NFL rookie record—giving him a stranglehold on the starting quarterback role.

“He’s earned the right to be our quarterback—as hard as it is for me to say. He’s earned that right,’’ Romo said during a voluntary, emotional mid-season press conference. “I think Dak knows that I have his back.”

The face of the franchise for the past 10 years accepted his role as a backup and pledged not to be a distraction. Rather than sulk and criticize, he’s helped mentor the rookie and stayed out of the limelight. What was an almost unthinkable scenario before the season started turned into a quarterback controversy that wasn’t.

On Sunday, Dallas rested its starters in a meaningless game before the playoffs, and Romo saw his first action of the season: six plays, 81 yards, one touchdown pass. The broad smile on his face spoke volumes.

After the game, Romo didn’t beat his chest. He declined to talk about the quarterback situation or his future, instead focusing on the sliver of the game that was his: “Coming in here today was similar to other games. You just get yourself ready to play, and when they call on you, you play.”

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SOURCE: WORLD Magazine
J.C. Derrick

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