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IRVING, Texas - So we keep hearing this and hearing this and hearing this:
The pressure is on Romo this season.
Romo must carry this team.
No more excuses for not winning a playoff game.
Really.
Or what?
Maybe you guys can help me with this one because I'm having problems comprehending this media and fan ultimatum being delivered to the Cowboys quarterback who is starting all of his third full season in the National Football League.
Let's be real here, or at least less hysterical. Better yet, let's not throw something out for controversy sake, purposely trying to get you guys all riled up before the Cowboys even step foot in San Antonio, which won't take place for a whole 'nuther week.
Just take a deep breath and ask yourself:
What if the Cowboys only go 9-7 again in 2009?
What if the Cowboys don't win the NFC East?
What if the Cowboys don't win a playoff game, extending their postseason drought to a full, franchise-high 13 seasons?
You mean to tell me if any or all of those scenarios play out, that's it? Romo is gone? Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, after seemingly wandering through the quarterback desert for nearly six years looking for Troy Aikman's successor, will simply snap his fingers and bring in another guy?
Or that the Cowboys will turn the club over to the soon-to-be 37-year-old Jon Kitna? Or that this year's fourth-round draft choice Stephen McGee, who played very little college ball in a pro style offense, will be the guy? Or that the Cowboys can be sure a first-round quality quarterback will be there for the taking in next year's draft . . . and be ready to play in 2010?
Come on, what are we talking about here?
Now from a financial point, if you are Jerry Jones and can stomach throwing around $11.5 million in signing bonus for just three years of service, then yeah, the Cowboys certainly could opt out of his seven-year, $67 million deal. Because the $30 million guaranteed portion of his contract will expire this year with $6 million of his 2009 $7 million base salary guaranteed.
Cut ties with Romo after three seasons, and basically you paid him $10.33 million a year for three years when prorating his signing bonus and guarantees. That's about the going rate for starting quarterbacks these days. Cut him after three years though, and you throw away a very contract-friendly deal, which rises to only an $8.5 million base in 2010, then $9 million for the next two seasons and tops out with an $11.5 million base in 2013.
Financially, yeah, it's doable.
Factoring in practicality is another story. That would send the Cowboys stumbling back into that quarterbacking no-man's land, throwing away all the patience they exhibited by taking three years to develop a quarterback instead of speculating a $60 million guarantee to instantly pop one on the field. I mean, you don't think the Lions are a tad nervous heading into training camp after guaranteeing Matthew Stafford $41.7 million smackeroos? Holding their collective breath?
Funny how this stuff works. Because as I remember, everyone wasn't rushing to throw down these ultimatums on Troy Aikman when he arrived here in 1989, and he was the first pick in the draft that year. Not just the Cowboys' first pick remember, the league's.
And Aikman, after his first three seasons starting, owned a 14-24 record as a starter (.368 winning percentage). While the Cowboys did win a playoff game his third season starting, Aikman didn't win it. He was watching from the sideline with a sprained knee that knocked him out of the final 4½ games while Steve Beuerlein beat Chicago in that wild-card playoff game.
Furthermore, let's look at Aikman's numbers after three seasons: Completed 618 of 1,055 passes for 7,082 yards, 31 touchdowns and 46 interceptions, bringing his 38-game QB rating to 70.49.
By today's ultimatums, Aikman should have been out of here, never given a chance to grow into a Hall of Fame quarterback.
Now Romo. In his 39 regular-seasons starts over the past 2-5/8ths seasons, Romo owns a 27-12 record (.692 winning percentage) and is 0-2 in his only playoff starts. His numbers: Completed 815 of 1,280 passes for 10,300 yards, 78 touchdowns and 43 interceptions, bringing his 39-game QB rating to 95. Let me spell that out for all those who have become incensed with Romo's supposed inefficiency: That's a QB rating of NINETY-FIVE.
Oh, and how about this: Romo has been sacked 65 times during his career, which includes two from that second half he played against the Giants in 2006 before taking over for good coming out of the locker room at halftime for Drew Bledsoe. And Aikman? When it came to sacks in those first 38 starts? Try 91 times.
You guys still with me here?
Not sure how many more times these numbers must be posted before they sink in, or the ones posted by Peyton Manning, the 1998 NFL Draft's first pick. Manning would start every game his first three seasons with the Colts (48), posting a 26-22 record (.542 winning percentage) and had a 0-2 playoff record. As for his numbers, Manning playing in a three-receiver, pass-happy offense, completed 1,014 of 1,679 passes for 12,287 yards, 85 touchdowns and 58 interceptions.
Remember, this is Manning, now considered one of the top two quarterbacks in the league, and his three-year QB rating was 85.38.
Hmmmm.
Wonder if Colts fans and the national media were screaming about the pressure being on Manning heading into the 2001 season, that he either needed to win a playoff game his fourth season as a starter or else he'd be considered no more than some Bert Jones the rest of his career? Well, if they did, then they were dead wrong since Manning and the Colts went no better than 6-10 his fourth season . . . and Manning would not win his first playoff game until his sixth NFL season, having gone 0-3 before leading the Colts to the AFC title game during the 2003 season, two months from his 28th birthday.
Amazing, huh? And now he's on his way to Canton.
But get ready. No amount of sound logic, numbers or comparisons will make a difference. Because when the Cowboys report to training camp on July 28 you will be inundated with stories about how this will be Tony Romo's make or break season. On how he's gotta win this year.
And it's sort of been going on already all summer. Why, I just read if Romo doesn't win a playoff game this no-excuses season he'll be considered Danny White, which really is a slap in the kisser to Danny White, who in his first three seasons as a NFL starter lost three NFC title games. Yeah, you think Quincy Carter would have traded his three-year mess for the right to lose three straight NFC title games? You think Steve Pelluer would have settled for that?
How about Vince Young, Matt Leinart, Jay Cutler, Alex Smith, Aaron Rodgers, Jason Campbell, Philip Rivers, J.P. Losman, Carson Palmer, Byron Leftwich, Kyle Boller, Rex Grossman, David Carr, Joey Harrington, Patrick Ramsey, Michael Vick and Chad Pennington. Those are all but two of the quarterbacks this century selected in the first round.
The other two? Why of course, Ben Roethlisberger (two Super Bowl victories) and Eli Manning (one Super Bowl victory), both selected in the 2004 draft.
But for some reason, Romo is treated differently, and he wasn't even a first-round pick. Hell, he wasn't even a pick, period. Not even invited to work out at the NFL combine in 2003, only stepping foot that February in Indy to facilitate receiver and tight end workouts.
I mean it's 11 days until the Cowboys kick off training camp at the Alamodome with a press conference and welcoming concert, and already you have heard the ultimatums being delivered locally and nationally in print; on TV, radio and especially the internet, where no story ever can be too sensationalized. My advice to Romo is to print up some flash cards with standard answers for the first week of camp.
Because no one will be happy with his answer to this one unless he says something like, if we don't go 12-4 this season and advance to the NFC title game, my career will have been a complete failure, a waste of my time and the Cowboys, and I'm guessing Jerry Jones wouldn't even dare bring me back next season, so yeah, the pressure to win this year is really on.
Come on, OK, I exaggerate some - but not much. I'm right, aren't I? Because we already know you don't want him to say anything remotely like, "I'll still have a pretty good life if . . . ."
So instead, Romo will tell you how hard the Cowboys have worked this off-season and how serious everyone is taking this training camp and how they expect to improve this year and get better every practice, every game, and then at the end of the day we'll see where we stand.
Mark my words. (Pssst, Romo, come on pal, take notes. I love being right.)
All pretty absurd, isn't it?
But that doesn't matter. This pressure will be cooked up.
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Mickey Spagnola - 
