Nine days in to the offseason, the biggest question for the Dallas Cowboys continues to be the future of quarterback Tony Romo. On Tuesday, the team’s ordinarily loquacious owner made it clear that he and the rest of the franchise are done talking about the issue in public.
“I’m not going to get into that at all -- whether we’ve talked or not,” Jerry Jones said at the Senior Bowl, via Drew Davison of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “We’re at a juncture now that, we need to just cool it in our public conversations about what we’re going to be doing or not doing there with Tony.”
Jones is wise to not talk about it, because the more he does the more sensible it will become to simply release Romo’s rights without trying to trade him. That’s what Romo surely will want, and that could be what Jones ultimately does -- reluctantly.
Cowboys executive Stephen Jones made it clear last week that Jerry and Tony will work out the situation between them, and it remains distinctly possible that Jones and Romo will agree: (1) that the player will be released; and (2) that Romo will give his word to avoid certain teams, like Washington or other Dallas rivals. It would be unenforceable and, technically, impermissible.
Still, it would be something that Romo could either honor and preserve a relationship that will likely generate plenty of revenue for him after he retires or disregard and lose his standing with Jones.