Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was quick to shoot down the rumored three-way deal which would send quarterback Tony Romo to Washington.
And even though he doesn’t have a way to enforce it, he trusts his longtime quarterback to not sign with a division rival even if he’s released.
“It is implied that we will work in the best way we can for the mutual interest of Tony and the Cowboys. That was just implied,” Jones said, via Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “That’s important here. Now we’ve got to abide by every league rule. We can’t have agreements without it being within the boundaries of the NFL.
“But when you’ve got a situation like we got, we’ll do the do-right rule. That’s it. Very important. We do the do-right rule. We have that kind of relationship.”
Jones said there was no rush to make a decision on Romo, and they could wait beyond the March 9 start of free agency to make a deal since they are positioned to carry his cap hit into the year. That’s a roundabout way of him letting people know he’s not going to just give Romo away until he determines the value he might have to another (non-Washington) team.
“What I’m really saying is that I do not know how, what we will end up with – whether it will be a trade, whether it will be a release, whether it will be neither,” Jones said. “I do not know at this time. All scenarios have been well-considered and thought out. Now we’ve just got to see where the reality is.
“He’s considering options. Obviously, we all know that he’s going to have the opportunity to look at whatever situation, if there are situations. He’s going to have an opportunity to look at it. He gets to say and control this situation every bit as much as we do.”
Again, such a wink-nod agreement is absolutely unenforceable, but it appears Jones and Romo have the kind of relationship that trusting the other to “do-right” is understood.