Then there are those of us who were raised Cowboy fans the way people in Iran are raised Muslim. We rarely scream anything. We don't get excited when Dallas wins, because that's what's expected. We go crazy when they lose (remind me one day to tell the story of Earl Wright, no relation). I suppose all of us who feel this way were fans in Staubach era, or at least the White era.
And that segs us nicely into the current era. Tony Romo has been reaped all the benefits of the Cowboy quarterback, as pointed out in this piece on the utterly wretched website Grantland. (I'll be writing about this tomorrow). Romo has dated pretty and famous women. He's grown to great fame himself, garnering invites to celebrity events that no other athlete in Texas gets and getting covered by national media for his hobbies.
Romo even carries himself like a Cowboy quarterback. His poise, his easy smile and his charm are that of a man comfortable with his place on top of the mountain. But one must look at this particular mountain. This is Romo's sixth year as the starter. Only two other quarterbacks have started as many years. They are both in the Hall of Fame. They won five Super Bowls between them.Romo often talks of his desire to be in the Staubach/Aikman class and does so with an attitude that leads me to infer that he sees himself as approaching that level, just needing a couple of breaks here and there to make it. But Romo's not in that league and he's not in the Meredith/White league. He's closer to Hogeboom than White, to tell you the truth.
Which brings us to last night. I think my class of Dallas fans (we'll call us Landry fans) learned their lesson from the White/Hogeboom debacle (and our parents likely learned it from the Morton/Staubach debacle before it). My biggest gripe about Romo has always been that he seems like he's trying to be a good guy, rather than a good quarterback. Whenever someone kills a drive by making a boneheaded mistake, Romo has this goofy grin, as if to say "it's okay, it's just a silly game. I'm still your buddy." No one who has seen the clip of Aikman telling his line the previous series was a "Goddamn embarrassment" can imagine that Romo's approach is paying off.
When Staubach retired, Tony Hill said he was enjoying Danny White, because White was one of the guys. Hill said the pickup basketball games at Staubach's house always found Roger and Drew on the same, an attitude that carried over to the field when Roger would always look for Drew in the clutch. When Hogeboom was pushing White, one of the factors in Gary's favor was he was the kind of guy who would go drink a beer with the team. White was aloof. Meredith, of course, would drink a beer with anybody, but Meredith's hauling his rotting carcass out of bed to even play was enough to stamp him as something apart from the normal human being.
Simply put, one cannot simply imagine Romo telling the huddle what Seth Maxwell does at the :35 mark of this clip. And one senses that this is exactly what this team has needed for about 10 years.
Of course there is more to being a leader than being an asshole at the right time. And Romo certainly commands the loyalty of his players as Dez Bryant demonstrated last night in a clip I cannot find at the moment. But Bryant's defense is an indictment. One cannot imagine Butch Johnson needing to defend Staubach. Think about it. It boggles the mind.
If Romo wants to be a great quarterback in Dallas he needs to first realize what the standard is. Two Super Bowls, minimum. He's not close and he's not progressing. Last night was just the latest example. The Johnson-era Cowboy fans have been calling for Romo's head for a couple of years. But that's not a thoughtful move. Who is going to replace him? McGee? Kitna? Favre? Dallas has to start looking at what comes after Romo and it needs to start looking quickly. Unless he changes something about his fundamental approach to the game, he will never win in Dallas.
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