Tony Romo’s One Regret? It’s the One Thing Cowboys Fans Already Know

Tony Romo doesn’t sound like a guy who loses sleep over the past. He said so himself on a recent episode of the Pardon My Take podcast. But then he paused and let one thing slip.

The former Cowboys quarterback spent a decade in Dallas, threw for nearly 35,000 yards, made four Pro Bowls, and became one of the most polarizing figures in franchise history. And when asked about regrets, he got quiet for a second.

“I’m not a guy with big regrets, I guess you could say,” Romo said. “The only regret I guess I would have is that my job was to bring a Super Bowl to Dallas. And I didn’t do it.”

That’s it. That’s the one thing that still sits with him. Not the interceptions. Not the fumbles. Not the way his career ended when Dak Prescott took over. Just the fact that he never got the ring.

Nobody expected much from Romo at the start

Romo went undrafted in 2003. The Cowboys signed him as a free agent, and three years later he was the starter. From 2006 through 2014, he put up big numbers and led some of the most memorable regular-season wins in team history. But playoff success was a different story.

Dallas went 2-4 in the postseason with Romo under center. They beat the Eagles in the 2009 wild-card round, then got hammered by the Vikings in the divisional round. Romo threw a pick and lost two fumbles that day. In 2014, he played arguably his best playoff game against the Packers at Lambeau Field, throwing two touchdown passes and zero turnovers. It still wasn’t enough. The Cowboys lost 26-21.

By the time he was 36, Prescott had taken the job. Romo could have gone somewhere else. He thought about it. He wanted a ring that bad.

“But at the end it was like I could go somewhere else and do it,” he said. “Because I was like, I gotta win a Super Bowl. It’s literally what you play the game for. Nothing else matters. But would that be the same if I went somewhere else and did it?”

He said his last 25 or so games were pretty successful when he was healthy. But his body was breaking down. Injuries piled up. And somewhere along the way, winning a championship somewhere else stopped feeling like the same thing.

“It just wouldn’t feel as important,” he said.