JACKEL: Staying focused

Romo adjusts to the rigors of stardom

BY Peter Jackel
Journal Times

Monday, November 19, 2007 11:45 PM CST

It was 10 years ago this month when a somewhat reserved kid sat down at a desk in Room 25 of the old Burlington High School for an interview. He had just been named the All-Racine County Player of the Year in football despite his team going 3-6 during that 1997 season. As the interview progressed, the subject somehow turned to why he wore No. 16 for Burlington.

“I didn’t want to follow in anyone’s shadow and I figured I’d start a new legacy with a number,” the kid said. “I took 16 because I like Peyton Manning (a senior at Tennessee in 1997 who wore that number in college) and Joe Montana is my favorite quarterback of all time.”

Start a new legacy. Hmmm. Ten years later, it almost seems as if Tony Romo had visions of what was to come, doesn’t it?

The same goes for former Oak Creek coach Joe Koch, who was quoted in Romo’s Player of the Year story.

“I actually felt during the game that he was so on that we couldn’t stop him,” Koch said in that story. “It was pointless. I said to an assistant after the game that if I had that kid at quarterback, I wouldn’t be afraid to throw 30 times a game. I don’t like to throw, but if we had Romo, we’d throw 30 times a game. You’d be stupid not to.”

Still, the Tony Romo you know today was many years in the making that November day in 1997.

Let’s not forget that Romo was an overlooked honorable mention All-State player that season who got a chance at Eastern Illinois largely because of a Journal Times story Racine’s Bob Wittke sent to his son, Roy, who was quarterbacks coach at the school.

Let’s not forget that even as Romo was preparing to leave for Eastern Illinois, basketball still was his first love and he was seriously considering trying to play both at the collegiate level.

And let’s not forget that Romo signed as an undrafted free agent with the Dallas Cowboys in April 2003 and spent the next three-plus seasons rusting on the bench while the team’s braintrust insisted on the likes of Quincy Carter, Chad Hutchinson, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Henson and Drew Beldsoe at quarterback.

In fact, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was recently quoted as saying, “Tony has far exceeded my expectations.”

Could it be possible that the once shy kid has settled in as the logical successor in the Meredith-Staubach-Aikman lineage of quarterbacks for the Cowboys? And that Romo already has been to the Pro Bowl once, has revived the Cowboys from a 10-year slumber, recently signed a $67 million contract and has been consistently linked romantically — however erroneous those reports have been — with some of the most high-profile celebrities in the United States?

“It’s funny how my life has gone in this direction in some ways,” Romo said.

But what’s perhaps most impressive about Romo is something that hasn’t been written, only because so few have a perspective between then and now.

The fact is that even as his stardom has rocketed, Romo still is largely that same kid who sat in Room 25 10 years ago. Oh, he’s far more outgoing these days, but the values Racine natives Ramiro and Joan Romo instilled into their only son as they raised him in the old-school atmosphere of Burlington remain intact.

In short, he’s just a nice, humble, personable kid who happens to be one of the most famous athletes in professional sports these days.

He still takes the time to return a call from this writer, even when he receives upwards of 100 cell-phone messages a day. He has somehow won over quarterback-trashing wide receiver Terrell Owens. He’s doing his best to satisfy the insatiable appetite of football-crazed Texas with autograph requests. And he’s learned to live in a fish bowl, where merely shaking hands with Britney Spears after a chance encounter is immediately reported as a budding romantic relationship.

Success is a breeding ground for arrogance, but Tony remains Tony — even in the blinding glare of superstardom.

“I’m always nice to people,” Romo said. “I always treat people the way I would want to be treated if I was doing the exact same thing they were doing.

“You just somehow limit the times you go out. You limit the times you go out to eat, you expect it’s going to go along with it and you try and put on a ball cap and a sweatshirt and go out like that once in awhile.”

The same goes with money. Just ask him about that $67 million contract, $30 million of which is guaranteed.

“The money side of it, I just never thought too much about,” Romo said. “I was probably more excited about the $2 million contract I signed the year before just because I felt like I was set up for life then.

“It’s funny how things work out and this one just feels like Monopoly money. You don’t really comprehend it in some ways. It’s just something neat that happens along the way if you try to be special at something and I was fortunate enough to be blessed in this way.”

Let’s face it. The days of Johnny Unitas being signed out of a Pittsburgh sandlot league and Bart Starr progressing from a 17th-round draft choice to Vince Lombardi’s right-hand man for an unforgettable dynasty have become so rare these days in the NFL, where scouting is more advanced then ever.

But staying true to himself just might be the biggest reason Romo has succeeded against the most enormous of odds.

“The classic thing is when people get success, they become lackadaisical,” Romo said. “They think they’ve arrived. But in my life, it’s kind of the opposite.

“It’s like, ‘Hey, I want to be the backup, I want to be the starter, I want to be a good player, I want to be a great quarterback, I want to be the best quarterback — you just keep going along the way.”

By the way, Tony, do you plan to play in Racine’s Tri-Course golf tournament next summer?

“I’ll always play in the Tri-Course,” he said.

Even in this unprecedented age when steroids, money and arrogance have cloaked professional sports with distrust and distaste, how can anyone not root for someone like Romo?

Peter Jackel is a reporter for The Journal Times. You can reach him by calling (262) 634-3322, Ext. 323 or by e-mailing him at peter.jackel@lee.net

Special Offer: Get 5 Weeks of the Journal Times for $7!