By Rich Tandler
The positive news on the health of Tony Romo has been absolutely gushing out of the Lone Star State over the past 24 hours.
Multiple Cowboys reporters are saying that, according to a source, the puncture wound in his lung has “healed”. Backup quarterback Jon Kitna says that he “fully expects” Romo to play. Kitna echoed what head coach Jason Garrett said on Monday, less than 24 hours after the injury.
I’m starting to smell a smokescreen.
Appearing on ESPN television yesterday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sort of sounded optimistic about Romo playing but he really didn’t say anything.
"Tony certainly had his examination [Thursday] and everything is on go as we would hoped it would be and expected it to be relative to his lung status," Jones said. "That still doesn't necessarily mean he's going to play Monday night, but still that's on go."
What does “on go” mean? And if the lung is healed, why did the head Cowboy not say so?
Meanwhile, I took part in as much of the Cowboy’s Thursday practice as Romo did. Apparently “on go” does not mean practicing when your wide receivers could well be guys named Ogletree and Holley.
Certainly, he was resting the cracked rib. But someone who I “fully expect” to play is going to participate in practice at least in a limited way. I would say that someone who doesn’t practice “might” play.
The bottom line is that it seems like too much sunshine coming out of Dallas. If it were likely that he would play on Monday, I would think that the message coming out of Valley Ranch would be on the gloomy side. The fact that the news coming out is being managed towards the cheery side makes me think that they are bearish on Romo’s chances of suiting up for the game.
He still could play. But the smokescreen makes me think that internally the Cowboys are not optimistic that he will.
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