We take a look back at the career of the young man from Eastern Illinois (photo:chicagonow.com)

Article by: Artie Cappello

When Tony Romo took over for Drew Bledsoe at half-time in October 2006, his first pass was intercepted. We in Cowboys Nation didn’t care, we were tired of Bledsoe. If you watched the game, the game was winnable until Tony’s third interception of the half. Again, and I think I speak for most Cowboys fans, we didn’t care. Tony Romo was new. We were asking for a changing of the guard and we got it.

It’s was OK that he was raw. He was also mobile, fun, and a gun slinger. Always had a smile on his face, our own Brett Favre. For older fans, he reminded us of Roger the Dodger, Roger Staubach. And Romo played well, the game wasn’t too big for the kid. We had found a worthy heir to the Dallas Cowboys QB Thrown. Staubach and Troy Aikman approved, so the bandwagon was quickly assembled and we all jumped on it. The media broke out the anointing oil despite coach Bill Parcells warning them to put it away.

The Cowboys made the playoffs that year, lead by our undrafted free agent out of AA Eastern Illinois. This was a Cinderella story in the making.

Then the fumbled snap… No Cinderella story. (more…)