Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo turned in an incredible performance in the fourth quarter and overtime of the team’s victory over the 49ers on Sunday, playing despite suffering a broken rib and collapsed lung. Now one of Romo’s teammates has given some details about just how incredible the performance was.
DeMarco Murray, a Cowboys running back who was in the huddle with Romo on Sunday, said Romo couldn’t do much more than gasp for air.
“He could barely breathe,” Murray said on KESN-FM. “We were just seeing him grunting, and when he was trying to talk, he was just kind of holding on. You could see it in his facial expressions that he was hurt.”
Hearing that, I wonder whether the Cowboys’ medical staff should have allowed Romo back onto the field. When a player has a concussion, he’s not allowed to keep playing. When a player has a broken rib and collapsed lung, should the medical staff really just give him a painkilling shot and send him back out there, even though he can barely breathe?
But while we can question the decision to let Romo keep playing, we can’t question Romo’s toughness. Murray said Romo has the admiration of every one of his teammates.
“He’s our leader on offense vocally, and he’s a guy that everybody looks to,” Murray said. “He fought his butt off for us.”