The Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback controversy that wasn’t

In October 2010, New York Giants linebacker Michael Boley drilled Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo as he released a pass to receiver Miles Austin. Boley drove Romo into the ground and landed on top of him, breaking his clavicle.

Medical staff rushed to aid Romo: “Is it your collarbone?” one asked the quarterback as he lay on the turf. Romo ignored the question: “Did [Austin] catch the pass?”

The answer was yes, but Dallas subsequently lost its lead, then the game, and Romo’s season.

As a Texas sports writer at the time, I still remember the look on Romo’s face as he addressed reporters with his arm in a sling after the game. He spoke in quiet, somber tones but with a sense of peace.

Peace isn’t something that comes easily to the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, an iconic position filled by a string of stars over the past five decades. Don Meredith, Roger Staubach, Danny White, and Troy Aikman not only gave the Cowboys decades of stability at the position, they helped lead the team to eight Super Bowl appearances.

Over the last decade, Romo, an outspoken Christian, has set franchise records in numerous statistical categories and compiled the fourth-highest passer rating in NFL history. He’s played with broken ribs and a punctured lung and mostly without the elite supporting casts his predecessors enjoyed.

But fans and media judge Dallas quarterbacks by their number of Super Bowl rings, and Romo has none.

This season Romo had perhaps the best team of his career, but he broke a bone in his back during the preseason. While he was out, rookie Dak Prescott led the team on an 11-game winning streak—an NFL rookie record—giving him a stranglehold on the starting quarterback role.

“He’s earned the right to be our quarterback—as hard as it is for me to say. He’s earned that right,’’ Romo said during a voluntary, emotional mid-season press conference. “I think Dak knows that I have his back.”

The face of the franchise for the past 10 years accepted his role as a backup and pledged not to be a distraction. Rather than sulk and criticize, he’s helped mentor the rookie and stayed out of the limelight. What was an almost unthinkable scenario before the season started turned into a quarterback controversy that wasn’t.

Rather than sulk and criticize, he’s helped mentor the rookie and stayed out of the limelight.

On Sunday, Dallas rested its starters in a meaningless game before the playoffs, and Romo saw his first action of the season: six plays, 81 yards, one touchdown pass. The broad smile on his face spoke volumes.

After the game, Romo didn’t beat his chest. He declined to talk about the quarterback situation or his future, instead focusing on the sliver of the game that was his: “Coming in here today was similar to other games. You just get yourself ready to play, and when they call on you, you play.”

Romo’s past public comments provide a window into why he’s been able to handle a difficult situation. In a 2011 discussion with his pastor, Matt Chandler of The Village Church, Romo said God has used failures and disappointments to help him grow.

“All these experiences that I’ve been through—you would never change them,” said Romo, who professed faith in Christ at a Bible study while he was at Eastern Illinois University. “Things will end up working out the way they are supposed to.”

In February, Romo told Chandler he’s learned not to let football define him.

“At some point … I’m not going to be the quarterback,” Romo said. “I try to make sure that my identity is bigger than myself—and it’s in Christ. If you go that route, you’re able to handle the ebbs and flows and the seasons of life that ultimately happen.”

Romo, 36, could never have known how prescient those words would be. He may soon suit up for the last time as a Dallas Cowboy, but in the process he’s provided one of the greatest examples of character and leadership the NFL has ever seen.