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Never say never with Tony Romo
jenfloyd@ star-telegram.com
In the world of sports punditry, Tony Dungy oftentimes sounds like Bill Cosby in a crowd of Richard Pryors, George Carlins and Eddie Murphys.
Others scream. He lectures.
Others cuss. He discusses.
Others machete. He deals in paper cuts.
Dungy has this ability to go scorched earth without even raising his voice, or falling back on "Big Sports Opinions." Which is why when he drops his word of wisdom into this quickly mushroom-clouding Cowboys mess, I tend to listen.
"Part of being a leader at the quarterback position is protecting the football," Dungy said of Cowboys QB Tony Romo on Sunday's Football Night in America. "You've got to do that to be a great quarterback."
Read that again. What he actually said was: Romo is not a leader, and he is not great. Not yet, not right now, maybe not ever.
The questions he raises about Romo are fair. What is not is pretending we already have the answers.
It is very popular at the moment to say Romo is not a leader, never has been and never will be, to say he is not great, never has been and never will be. I am not ready to venture into "never will be" territory.
I believe Romo has great and leader in him. As well as Super Bowl.
That said, right now, with this Cowboys team facing yet another Save-The-Season game Sunday in Minnesota, would be a great time for Romo to start flashing both.
The Cowboys lack both accountability and leadership, and desperately need a guy like Romo to step into the gap. I am not talking a fiery speech, although that would go a long way coming from him. I am talking about getting in a guy like Marc Colombo's face after stupid penalties, or jumping the whole offensive line for how it played, or doing what cornerback Terence Newman was trying to do Sunday by rallying his defensive teammates.
The criticisms of Romo are usually demeanor-related -- too cavalier, lacking in fire, non-demonstrative, doesn't look like he cares, the whole nonsense about the direction of his ball cap.
I have known Romo since the day he walked into Valley Ranch as a free agent, and I can say without equivocation that the dude's problem is not a lack of care. You do not work on your game and your play and your mental approach as much as he has if you do not care. He cares. And I will say this again, what we have at Valley Ranch is not a care problem.
It is something harder to define and thereby much harder to solve. It requires leadership, which we all know is lacking with a certain head coach.
So the logical place to look is QB. And Dungy is right to question Romo's leadership. We all should be. There are guys in the Cowboys locker room who are looking at him sideways and wondering what he is all about right now.
Let's be clear, this is not like the T.O. mess where a good number of Cowboys players were like "get this divisive you-know-what out of here" or even a situation where players are kvetching about him behind his back. This is more dedicated leaders wondering, "We are drowning in a lack of accountability and leadership. This guy can really help bail water. Why won't he?"
Inevitably, I am going to hear from an e-mailer or two saying, "Well, Aikman was not a leader."
You, e-mailer-to-be-named-later, are an idiot. Let me count the ways.
(1.) Aikman played for Jimmy Johnson, thereby giving those Cowboys teams an undisputed leader; (2.) he also had Michael Irvin running that locker room with an iron fist and; (3.) talk to anybody who played with Aikman, and he will tell you Aikman led in his own way.
You do not hear that about Romo in this locker room; if anything you hear from guys saying they wish he'd do more. Who cares if that is not his M.O.? A perk of the position is guys listen to what you say anyway. It also is a condition of greatness. To be great, one usually has to be a leader.
So Dungy is also right to question Romo's greatness. We all should. When we are being honest, we know that greatness is judged by what a player does in the biggest games and how far he takes his team in the postseason and what the player does when everything seems to be falling apart.
See Lee, Cliff, and Rangers.
The tricky part about Romo is that he is, by far and away, the best quarterback the Cowboys have had since Aikman. And in a league littered with Jason Campbells and Kyle Bollers, he certainly is in the Top 10 NFL.
What I also know about Romo is that good is not good enough for him.
If so, he'd have happily been Drew Henson's backup and cashed his check and never pushed himself to where he is now. Nor do I buy that the contract or the status has made him complacent.
But Dungy is right. Romo is not a leader or great right now.
And right now is exactly the time for Romo to start proving he can and will go down as both.
Jennifer Floyd Engel, 817-390-7697
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/10/13/2545131/never-say-never-with-tony-romo.html#ixzz12KltgOGO
jenfloyd@ star-telegram.com
In the world of sports punditry, Tony Dungy oftentimes sounds like Bill Cosby in a crowd of Richard Pryors, George Carlins and Eddie Murphys.
Others scream. He lectures.
Others cuss. He discusses.
Others machete. He deals in paper cuts.
Dungy has this ability to go scorched earth without even raising his voice, or falling back on "Big Sports Opinions." Which is why when he drops his word of wisdom into this quickly mushroom-clouding Cowboys mess, I tend to listen.
"Part of being a leader at the quarterback position is protecting the football," Dungy said of Cowboys QB Tony Romo on Sunday's Football Night in America. "You've got to do that to be a great quarterback."
Read that again. What he actually said was: Romo is not a leader, and he is not great. Not yet, not right now, maybe not ever.
The questions he raises about Romo are fair. What is not is pretending we already have the answers.
It is very popular at the moment to say Romo is not a leader, never has been and never will be, to say he is not great, never has been and never will be. I am not ready to venture into "never will be" territory.
I believe Romo has great and leader in him. As well as Super Bowl.
That said, right now, with this Cowboys team facing yet another Save-The-Season game Sunday in Minnesota, would be a great time for Romo to start flashing both.
The Cowboys lack both accountability and leadership, and desperately need a guy like Romo to step into the gap. I am not talking a fiery speech, although that would go a long way coming from him. I am talking about getting in a guy like Marc Colombo's face after stupid penalties, or jumping the whole offensive line for how it played, or doing what cornerback Terence Newman was trying to do Sunday by rallying his defensive teammates.
The criticisms of Romo are usually demeanor-related -- too cavalier, lacking in fire, non-demonstrative, doesn't look like he cares, the whole nonsense about the direction of his ball cap.
I have known Romo since the day he walked into Valley Ranch as a free agent, and I can say without equivocation that the dude's problem is not a lack of care. You do not work on your game and your play and your mental approach as much as he has if you do not care. He cares. And I will say this again, what we have at Valley Ranch is not a care problem.
It is something harder to define and thereby much harder to solve. It requires leadership, which we all know is lacking with a certain head coach.
So the logical place to look is QB. And Dungy is right to question Romo's leadership. We all should be. There are guys in the Cowboys locker room who are looking at him sideways and wondering what he is all about right now.
Let's be clear, this is not like the T.O. mess where a good number of Cowboys players were like "get this divisive you-know-what out of here" or even a situation where players are kvetching about him behind his back. This is more dedicated leaders wondering, "We are drowning in a lack of accountability and leadership. This guy can really help bail water. Why won't he?"
Inevitably, I am going to hear from an e-mailer or two saying, "Well, Aikman was not a leader."
You, e-mailer-to-be-named-later, are an idiot. Let me count the ways.
(1.) Aikman played for Jimmy Johnson, thereby giving those Cowboys teams an undisputed leader; (2.) he also had Michael Irvin running that locker room with an iron fist and; (3.) talk to anybody who played with Aikman, and he will tell you Aikman led in his own way.
You do not hear that about Romo in this locker room; if anything you hear from guys saying they wish he'd do more. Who cares if that is not his M.O.? A perk of the position is guys listen to what you say anyway. It also is a condition of greatness. To be great, one usually has to be a leader.
So Dungy is also right to question Romo's greatness. We all should. When we are being honest, we know that greatness is judged by what a player does in the biggest games and how far he takes his team in the postseason and what the player does when everything seems to be falling apart.
See Lee, Cliff, and Rangers.
The tricky part about Romo is that he is, by far and away, the best quarterback the Cowboys have had since Aikman. And in a league littered with Jason Campbells and Kyle Bollers, he certainly is in the Top 10 NFL.
What I also know about Romo is that good is not good enough for him.
If so, he'd have happily been Drew Henson's backup and cashed his check and never pushed himself to where he is now. Nor do I buy that the contract or the status has made him complacent.
But Dungy is right. Romo is not a leader or great right now.
And right now is exactly the time for Romo to start proving he can and will go down as both.
Jennifer Floyd Engel, 817-390-7697
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/10/13/2545131/never-say-never-with-tony-romo.html#ixzz12KltgOGO
