Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo played on Thursday with the flu. No one knew he had the flu until after the game.
Specifically, the Raiders didn’t know.
Illnesses typically are disclosed on the injury report. In this case, Romo’s wasn’t. Per a league source with knowledge of the situation, the Cowboys face no scrutiny because the illness surfaced on the morning of the game.
If Romo had disclosed the illness to the team on Wednesday, the team would have been required to disclose it. If, as in this case, the team first finds out about the illness on the day of the game, there’s no duty to update the report.
In this specific case, Romo was vomiting and received intravenous fluids. But because it happened on Thursday, the Cowboys were permitted to keep it secret.
The reasoning doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, if the primary unspoken goal of the injury report is to minimize inside information that gamblers could try to secure. As of Thursday morning, inside information existed regarding Romo’s health condition. And anyone who had access to it could have taken the Raiders and the nine or so points.
The Raiders lost by seven.
So pay attention, those of you who may be interested in the outcome of games for purposes other than amusement. There’s always a chance, especially during cold and flu season, that a starting quarterback will roll out of bed with a virus -- and that no one will know about it until after the game has ended.
The easy solution for that, of course, would be to require all injuries and illnesses to be disclosed, even if they first arise on the day of the game.