Reeves: It's Romo, not Romeo, we would love to see
By JIM REEVES
Star-Telegram staff writer
For the panic-stricken, for the Chicken Littles of the world, for those who believe Tony Romo is on the verge of going "Hollywood" on us, this little tidbit is for you.
The beautiful actress was actually on the Cowboys' charter flight Friday, headed to Charlotte to watch tonight's game with the Carolina Panthers. Whether she was bringing a pink "No. 9" jersey with her was unknown.
I can hear the screams even as you contemplate those words.
Let me try to soothe your frazzled nerves.
It's not Jessica Simpson.
No, this particular actress is Tracy Phillips, daughter of Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips. She's a brunette, not a blonde. You may have even caught her belly-dancing performance in Charlie Wilson's War, the latest Tom Hanks blockbuster that just opened in area theaters Friday.
So calm down. If the Cowboys blow it against the Panthers tonight, it won't be because Romo is thinking fly patterns when he just called for T.O. to run a post.
And that's what the Cowboys would have to do to lose to the Panthers, blow it ... the game, their shot at home-field advantage during the playoffs and very likely their best chance at a return to the Super Bowl.
If adversity indeed makes a team grow stronger or crumbles it like a stale Christmas cookie, we're about to discover whether these Cowboys are made of true grit or just gussied up sugar and water.
If they're looking for a reason to have another December to forget, this week provided a multitude of them.
Jessica's presence in her special Romo jersey last Sunday was the most talked about, and also the most bogus, of them all, so let's work from that direction first.
The Cowboys won't lose tonight because of Jessica. They didn't lose to the Eagles last weekend because of Jessica. If you have so little faith in Romo's ability to concentrate on the job at hand to believe that he wasn't himself because she was at the game, or because they'd spent the previous night together, you need another hobby.
(Just a reminder: Cowboys players are routinely sequestered in a local hotel by 8 p.m. the night before home games. No visitors allowed.)
Then, earlier in the week, there was T.O.'s joking reference to Jessica being persona non grata at games in the future.
Owens tends to forget that anything he says, especially about teammates or other players, immediately turns into headlines and SportsCenter and blog fodder. It was a nothing story provoked by someone with about the same between the ears. Forget it.
There are far more pressing concerns for the Cowboys tonight.
Believe it or not, Roy Williams' absence is one of them. Yes, he's vulnerable in pass defense. But he is also a strong force in the Cowboys' run defense, and there will be moments when he will almost surely be missed, especially since Patrick Watkins is also out for the game with an injury. That leaves the Cowboys very thin in the secondary, and don't think the Panthers won't try to exploit that weakness.
Watkins, however, isn't the most worrisome injury for the Cowboys. That distinction belongs to center Andre Gurode, who will be replaced by Cory Procter. That means a different guy popping the ball into Romo's hands.
Ouch.
Yeah, you see the problem, right? New center combined with very sore thumb equals potential disaster.
Just how bad is Romo's thumb? Hard to tell. We might have a better idea if the Cowboys hadn't taken the unusual step of keeping Romo under wraps all week so that he didn't speak directly to the media. Was that to keep him from having to deal with the Jessica fallout, or so that he wouldn't be put in a position of being forced to reveal more than the Cowboys wanted the public -- and the Panthers -- to know about the extent of his thumb injury? Or both?
Phillips -- Wade, not Tracy -- insisted that Romo was throwing the ball better as the week progressed and that makes sense if it was indeed nothing but a bruise. But as of Friday, no one knew whether Romo had actually taken a direct snap from center to test his sore thumb.
For Romo, it's a return to the scene of his first real NFL triumph. This is where he made his first start last season. It's where he rallied the Cowboys from a 14-0 first-quarter deficit to a 35-14 victory.
Tonight, they are playing a 6-8 Carolina team starting its NFL-record fourth quarterback, former Cowboys' hopeful Matt Moore.
Jake Delhomme threw eight touchdown passes in the Panthers' first three games. Since he's been hurt, three other Carolina starters accounted for eight in the team's next 11 games, none by Moore.
The quarterback under the spotlight, though, will be Romo, but he won't be alone out there.
This is a gut-check for the entire Cowboys team. For perhaps the first time this season, they have some real adversity to overcome.
How they react will tell us a lot about what they're made of.
If they lose this one, there'll be no Jessica to blame.
Star-Telegram staff writer
For the panic-stricken, for the Chicken Littles of the world, for those who believe Tony Romo is on the verge of going "Hollywood" on us, this little tidbit is for you.
The beautiful actress was actually on the Cowboys' charter flight Friday, headed to Charlotte to watch tonight's game with the Carolina Panthers. Whether she was bringing a pink "No. 9" jersey with her was unknown.
I can hear the screams even as you contemplate those words.
Let me try to soothe your frazzled nerves.
It's not Jessica Simpson.
No, this particular actress is Tracy Phillips, daughter of Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips. She's a brunette, not a blonde. You may have even caught her belly-dancing performance in Charlie Wilson's War, the latest Tom Hanks blockbuster that just opened in area theaters Friday.
So calm down. If the Cowboys blow it against the Panthers tonight, it won't be because Romo is thinking fly patterns when he just called for T.O. to run a post.
And that's what the Cowboys would have to do to lose to the Panthers, blow it ... the game, their shot at home-field advantage during the playoffs and very likely their best chance at a return to the Super Bowl.
If adversity indeed makes a team grow stronger or crumbles it like a stale Christmas cookie, we're about to discover whether these Cowboys are made of true grit or just gussied up sugar and water.
If they're looking for a reason to have another December to forget, this week provided a multitude of them.
Jessica's presence in her special Romo jersey last Sunday was the most talked about, and also the most bogus, of them all, so let's work from that direction first.
The Cowboys won't lose tonight because of Jessica. They didn't lose to the Eagles last weekend because of Jessica. If you have so little faith in Romo's ability to concentrate on the job at hand to believe that he wasn't himself because she was at the game, or because they'd spent the previous night together, you need another hobby.
(Just a reminder: Cowboys players are routinely sequestered in a local hotel by 8 p.m. the night before home games. No visitors allowed.)
Then, earlier in the week, there was T.O.'s joking reference to Jessica being persona non grata at games in the future.
Owens tends to forget that anything he says, especially about teammates or other players, immediately turns into headlines and SportsCenter and blog fodder. It was a nothing story provoked by someone with about the same between the ears. Forget it.
There are far more pressing concerns for the Cowboys tonight.
Believe it or not, Roy Williams' absence is one of them. Yes, he's vulnerable in pass defense. But he is also a strong force in the Cowboys' run defense, and there will be moments when he will almost surely be missed, especially since Patrick Watkins is also out for the game with an injury. That leaves the Cowboys very thin in the secondary, and don't think the Panthers won't try to exploit that weakness.
Watkins, however, isn't the most worrisome injury for the Cowboys. That distinction belongs to center Andre Gurode, who will be replaced by Cory Procter. That means a different guy popping the ball into Romo's hands.
Ouch.
Yeah, you see the problem, right? New center combined with very sore thumb equals potential disaster.
Just how bad is Romo's thumb? Hard to tell. We might have a better idea if the Cowboys hadn't taken the unusual step of keeping Romo under wraps all week so that he didn't speak directly to the media. Was that to keep him from having to deal with the Jessica fallout, or so that he wouldn't be put in a position of being forced to reveal more than the Cowboys wanted the public -- and the Panthers -- to know about the extent of his thumb injury? Or both?
Phillips -- Wade, not Tracy -- insisted that Romo was throwing the ball better as the week progressed and that makes sense if it was indeed nothing but a bruise. But as of Friday, no one knew whether Romo had actually taken a direct snap from center to test his sore thumb.
For Romo, it's a return to the scene of his first real NFL triumph. This is where he made his first start last season. It's where he rallied the Cowboys from a 14-0 first-quarter deficit to a 35-14 victory.
Tonight, they are playing a 6-8 Carolina team starting its NFL-record fourth quarterback, former Cowboys' hopeful Matt Moore.
Jake Delhomme threw eight touchdown passes in the Panthers' first three games. Since he's been hurt, three other Carolina starters accounted for eight in the team's next 11 games, none by Moore.
The quarterback under the spotlight, though, will be Romo, but he won't be alone out there.
This is a gut-check for the entire Cowboys team. For perhaps the first time this season, they have some real adversity to overcome.
How they react will tell us a lot about what they're made of.
If they lose this one, there'll be no Jessica to blame.
posted by The Gryphon at 10:37 AM
<< Home