Loving & hating Tony Romo

If you live in Dallas, and have some connection to the world outside of your home, you know that my Cowboys are not doing too well so far this season. An iffy pre-season followed by two losses at the start of the season has me pretty worried about what this season has to hold for the 'Boys. I'd like to think that I am more than a fair weather fan, but I have a sense I may prove otherwise. I have to be honest with myself sometime, right?

I've boiled the issue down to this: I boggle between loving and hating Tony Romo. I think most Dallas fans do too. I love him when he spirals that pigskin straight into the hands of Miles Austin, Jason Witten, Dez Bryant, Roy Williams, Felix Jones or my favorite - Marion Barber. Just give one of these animals the ball and they will plow through any obstacle to get to the end zone.

But, I hate Romo when he gets sacked and when he throws to his imaginary friend on the sidelines. The ball is snapped, he backs up to pass and then bam! He chokes. It kills me every time. Until recently, I didn't know you could get a penalty for throwing the ball away. Thanks Romo; you're educating me and letting me down at the same time.

Here's the thing though - I feel bad for hating Romo in those moments. Everyone fails sometime, right? He can't be perfect 100% of the time, right? But we sure expect him to be perfect. And we hate him for failing.

As much as we want to throw out the "but he's a professional", "it's his job!" or "he's paid millions to just throw a ball", we're setting an impossible standard for him when we blame the team's losses entirely on him.

(A little caveat: I will blame the loss to the Redskins *gag* mostly on him, though. We were at a first down when we had the chance to clinch the lead. He chocked - twice - before #71 committed the holding penalty. I'm not too pleased with Alex Barron for what he did but Romo threw the ball away twice before Barron messed up.)

I've decided to keep hoping in the Cowboys while I can - only 14 more games to go before the end of the season. And I think I can give Romo another shot. We're stuck with him until 2013's season is over, right?