To hear Dallas Cowboys Chief Operating Officer Stephen Jones tell it, quarterback Tony Romo has achieved just about as much success as possible with the pieces the team has provided him over the years. In fact, according to Jones, basically everyone associated with the organization is subject to a piece of the Championship-lessness blame - everyone except Romo, of course.
Which is a vote of confidence for Tony, but also, perhaps, a stark indictment of himself and his father, Jerry, owner and acting general manager of the team.
"You know, certainly that doesn't sit in Tony's lap," Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said on KRLD-FM 105.3 The Fan Wednesday morning, according to Mark Lane of Fox Sports Southwest.
"That sits in our lap: Jerry and our family's lap in terms of the organization. We have to, you know, do better at putting people around [Romo]."
Jones threw the personnel department, the coaching staff and Romo's teammates in there for good measure as well.
The 34-year-old Romo has had eight quality seasons as a starter in Dallas, but has developed a reputation as a guy who wilts when the lights are brightest.
Romo, who has been playing with two transverse process fractures in his back, garners plenty of attention, but not in the same way the game's most elite quarterbacks, like Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, do.
"Well, I think the only thing missing is the ring, the championship," Jones said. "And I think that's ultimately going to come for Tony."
It could come this very season, assuming Romo gets or stays relatively healthy for the remainder of the year, and the team continues to play at as high a level as they have been. But Jones would do well to realize that blaming everyone but Romo for the team's inability to win a Super Bowl sets a dangerous and unhealthy precedent.
