Tony Romo Attempting to Reach Elite Status
Every underachieving team seems to have a scapegoat for any wrongdoing, a star player that’s one of the biggest reasons why a team has success, but receives the most blame in a big loss when it’s clearly a team loss. The Eagles fans had Donovan McNabb, the Chargers had Ladainian Tomlinson, and even Peyton Manning gets blamed after the Colts lose a playoff game. And, of course, the undisputed scapegoat for Cowboys fans is Tony Romo.
Romo has been a star quarterback since he entered the league. He is one of the biggest reasons why Dallas started to make the playoffs regularly and a big reason why they won their first playoff game in over a decade last year. Yet when the team lost to Minnesota in the divisional round last year, once again a lot of blame fell on Romo.
Never mind the fact that Romo was harassed and hit all game by the Vikings defence, or that the defence couldn’t stop the Favre attack. The loss to the Vikings was a team loss as were their recent playoff losses to the Giants and Seahawks.
Romo has been blamed for bobbling the snap in the ’06 playoff game and not being able to lead an overmatched Cowboys team to a victory at the Metrodome, both of which are ludicrous jabs.
Romo plays in the toughest division in football. He has Donovan McNabb, who’s been a great quarterback without a championship, and Eli Manning is the only QB in the division with a Super Bowl ring.
Romo has been to three Pro Bowls and is coming off a great season. He has an overall career passer rating of 95.6, which puts him third on the all-time list.
However, Romo understands what all great quarterbacks are ultimately judged by.
"You're judged at the quarterback position by wins and Super Bowls," Romo said. "But I love the tradition and the history of the game, so for me, I set out to accomplish certain goals, and right at the top, the only way to be included in any talk in anything is to go out and win championships. And Step 1 is to go out and get better today. The only way I know how to do it is to keep working hard."
A great athlete and a very hard worker, Romo strives to get better every year. What people should remember is that there have been plenty of great quarterbacks in the history of the game who haven’t won the Lombardi Trophy. Need you go further than Dan Marino? Even Brett Favre, after 19 years in the league, only has one ring. Quarterbacks can’t win championships on their own.
The team as a whole will have to get better as well. If Romo continues to tear up defences with Miles Austin and Jason Witten, and if Roy Williams and Dez Bryant can contribute, the offence may be unstoppable this year.
The whole team will have to do their part in the big game. Once again, the Cowboys are favourites to win the East and even win the Super Bowl on their home field. Sure Romo must be great for that to happen, but so does the whole team.
Romo’s veteran understudy Jon Kitna knows how important Romo is to the team: "Just watching the command he has of this team, it's clear that this is his football team," Kitna said. "And that makes the world of difference for a quarterback -- when everybody is looking to you to be the leader, to be the guy out front, and they expect greatness out of you and you expect more out of yourself than what they expect out of you. That's who he is."
Romo is tough, versatile, accurate and a great leader. He deserves a lot more credit than what he receives. Tony Romo is an elite quarterback in this league. Many teams would be happy to have him. Unfortunately, it will take a Super Bowl ring to prove it to everyone.
Tags: