Part of the reason people keep speculating about the possibility of Tony Romo returning to the Cowboys in the event of an injury to Dak Prescott might be that they keep talking about it.
But there’s also the small matter of some important real estate that makes people think he could still have one eye on his old job while working for CBS.
According to Todd Archer of ESPN.com, the Cowboys have yet to give away their former quarterback’s old locker, and they certainly haven’t given away his jersey number 9 to anyone yet.
And while it’s easy to talk around the number issue (they don’t retire numbers but no one wear’s Roger Staubach’s 12 or Troy Aikman’s 8 either), coach Jason Garrett has done some re-arranging in the locker room this offseason, putting team leaders in different corners of the room. And Romo’s spot remains vacant, even with a 90-man roster.
All of these breadcrumbs point to a certain lack of finality in his decision to make the leap to broadcasting. And it’s also wondering what the backup plan at CBS would be, if Romo decided to ride back into Dallas on a white horse in case of emergency.