Time moves fast around the NFL. Tony Romo may be known as the beloved face of CBS' NFL coverage now, but it wasn't long ago Cowboys fans were waffling about where he ranked among NFL starting quarterbacks.
Romo always put up exceptional counting stats, and the Eastern Illinois product was a Cowboys mainstay. Although his career ended unceremoniously with injury, he was debated about the same way almost-elite quarterbacks are debated about in today's NFL.
What was the firestorm around Romo?
Despite his always-excellent numbers, the Cowboys regularly came up short with him at the helm. They never made it past the Divisional Round with Romo at QB, although be fair to him they haven't made it past it since he retired either.
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Romo also played his share of Thanksgiving games. The Cowboys are, of course, an annual contestant on Turkey Day, and Romo spent nine years as the Cowboys' regular starter. He is one of the most prolific passers in Thanksgiving history, unsurprisingly alongside Matthew Stafford after the time he spent in Detroit.
Although Romo never got to where he wanted to go with the Cowboys, he still had an impressive career as a starter. Here are his records as a starter with Dallas.
Tony Romo record with Cowboys
As a starting quarterback, Romo was 78-49 for the Cowboys in the regular season.
He completed 65.3 percent of his passes for 34,183 yards (37th in NFL history) and 248 touchdowns. He also had 117 interceptions with the Cowboys as their QB.
Romo is also fifth in NFL history in all-time passer rating at 95.62, sandwiched between Peyton Manning and Philip Rivers.
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Near the end of Rivers' tenure, he had three-straight eight-win seasons and he had several years shortened by injury. He finished with a win percentage of 61 percent.
Tony Romo record on Thanksgiving
Romo went 6-3 on Thanksgiving as a starter, with his final Thanksgiving game coming 2015 in his second game off of injured reserve.
He started his career going 5-0 on Thanksgiving before dropping three of the last four games of his Thanksgiving career.
Romo is tied for the most holiday touchdown passes in NFL history with 18, alongside Matthew Stafford. He's also second in passing yards at 2,338, second to Stafford at 3,000.
The quarterback had plenty of big career-games on Thanksgiving, with three games of three or more touchdowns. On the flip side, he had 11 interceptions on Thanksgiving as well.
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Did Tony Romo win a Super Bowl?
Romo never won a Super Bowl during his NFL career.
He went 2-5 as a starter for the Cowboys in the postseason. He did not play in the final Cowboys playoff game in his career, a 34-31 loss to the Packers in 2017. Romo was inactive for the first Cowboys playoff game of his career, a loss to the Panthers in 2004.
Romo went 2-1 in the wild card round as the Cowboys' starter, and 0-4 in the divisional round with a pair of first-round byes. He never won a Super Bowl.
In his career, Romo completed 61.62 percent of his passes in the postseason for 1,316 yards, eight touchdowns, and two interceptions. For a myriad of reasons, however, the Cowboys just couldn't advance. In the wild card round in 2006-07 it was his botched hold that eliminated the Cowboys. In 2014-15 it was Dez Bryant's no-catch. Simply put, something always went wrong.
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Romo is now recognized as one of the standout Cowboys quarterbacks in team history, despite the disappointing team results. After his retirement, he immediately stepped in and dazzled NFL fans in the CBS booth, which has only added to his legacy. The conversation between him and Troy Aikman on the field may be over. Aikman has three Super Bowls to his name, after all. But the conversation about the two of them as broadcasters may go on for a long time yet.
