Tony Romo explains his biggest regret with the Dallas Cowboys, and more
Dallas Cowboys fans remember Tony Romo for his toughness, elusiveness and play-making, and also that he never won a Super Bowl with the franchise, which he called his greatest regret on ”Pardon My Take.”
““I’m not a guy with big regrets, I guess you could say. 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,” Romo said. “So that always sticks with me a little bit. Because you give your whole body, heart, soul, everything into it. You just wanted that for all the fans. The Joneses. For everybody that you’re around. And so that one always sticks with me a little bit just because I had that opportunity and just wasn’t able to do it. So that part of it kind of still sits there.”
Romo acknowledged he could’ve gone somewhere else but said it wouldn’t have meant as much to win a Super Bowl with another franchise.
Romo joined the Cowboys as an undrafted free agent after the 2003 NFL draft, and he talked about the moment he realized he could play in the NFL.
“I haven’t said it many times or ever, maybe. I remember everyone told me, cause I was undrafted coming out of Eastern Illinois, and I come into OTAs, rookie camp, and then you got to OTAs where the veterans come in,” said Romo. “This is the third pass I’ve done in team, 11-on-11 and I drop back and I drop back and I’m looking and I go like this to pretend to throw to the running back and the [linebacker] moves and I throw it. It was perfect timing, it was so well executed other than the five yards I overthrew the receiver.”
“All of a sudden, I go back and look, and the other quarterbacks waited until he was almost past him then they threw it,” said Romo. “I threw it about four yards before, right after the cut, it was natural to me...the Lord gifted me with the ability just to see [the game] faster.”
Romo also talked about some of the biggest moments in his career that cemented his as star in the NFL.
“Seattle preseason game, going into my fourth year... I still have yet to play a down, I’ve been improving and throwing the ball better,” said Romo.“They started me in a preseason game, which is rare, and Drew Bledose who was a great quarterback and No. 1 draft pick and he could throw the football incredibly well. He’s there and they say we’re gonna start Tony...and that was huge and I remember going OK, you know right then as an undrafted free agent you don’t get 10 chances at this, you get one, maybe two.”
Romo called it one of the most important games of his career and used the most of that opportunity and supplanted Bledsoe by the end of the 2006 season and spent the next 10 seasons with the Cowboys until his 2016 retirement.
It wasn’t a seamless transition after replacing Bledsoe in the team’s week 7 game against the Giants; Romo threw three interceptions head coach Bill Parcells took a vote to decide if the Eastern Illinois product would remain the starter. He won an 8-7 vote among all the coaches.
Romo would retire as the team’s all-time leading passing yardage and touchdowns thrown leader, though his passing yards record would be later broken by Dak Prescott who is also on pace break his touchdowns record next year.
This story was originally published July 15, 2026 at 2:00 PM.
