It hasn’t been all that long since Tony Romo retired from the NFL, but that hasn’t stopped new Dallas Cowboys rumors from popping up. Just recently, a former head coach talked about Romo leaving the Cowboys to work for CBS as a sports broadcaster and mentioned that the former Dallas quarterback could very well rejoin his team under certain circumstances. In addition to that, Romo may be participating in another sport. With that said, could Tony Romo make a return to the Dallas Cowboys in the future, or is he officially done with playing on the football field?
Last Tuesday, the Tony Romo rumors regarding him returning to play for the Cowboys or joining either the Houston Texans or Denver Broncos came to an abrupt halt. It had been known that several major networks were courting the Dallas QB to work as part of their broadcasting teams. Among them were CBS Sports, Fox Sports, and NBC. Romo ultimately chose CBS to transition into work off the field, joining the likes of other former quarterbacks, including Phil Simms and Troy Aikman.
On Monday, former NFL head coach Eric Mangini joined The Herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports. During his visit on Monday’s episode of The Herd , Mangini was asked mainly about the former Cowboys QB hanging it up and now calling games instead for CBS. Mangini mentioned that there would be a learning curve involved because the life an NFL player has while playing the game is much different than life on the road as a professional broadcaster. Mangini even mentioned his own learning curve when he started out as a head coach in the league for the New York Jets.
When speaking about Romo staying retired, Mangini raised very interesting speculation saying he believes the Dallas Cowboys star could very well return to the field. The former NFL head coach said he thinks that should Dak Prescott become injured for a team that is currently a Super Bowl contender, it could bring about Romo’s return to try to win the championship again. Colin and his co-host Kristine Leahy questioned Romo’s troubled relationship with current head coach Jason Garrett, and Mangini said he didn’t think that would be a deterrent if the Cowboys needed Romo’s services again.
Mangini was also on the recent FS1 Undisputed with Skip and Shannon and said he thinks there’s a 60 percent chance or higher for a Romo return to playing football. During that show, Mangini talked about how Romo will be watching a lot of “average quarterbacks play” and that Romo’s “window to be a great quarterback is right now.”
Eric Mangini: The probability Romo returns is higher than 60%. He will sit in the TV booth and realize his window to be a QB is right now pic.twitter.com/QWSllbyJMb
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) April 10, 2017
Despite the recent comments from Mangini, Romo has announced he has retired from the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and will begin calling games for the upcoming NFL season for the CBS team. There were also rumors he might try his hand at a different sport based on recent reports. As ESPN reported this past weekend, Romo will become an honorary member of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks team. The former Cowboys’ QB apparently has close relationships with Dallas Mavs’ star Dirk Nowitzki as well as head coach Rick Carlisle and owner Mark Cuban. While Romo will probably wear a jersey and get treated just like a player on the roster, reports indicate he won’t actually step foot on the court for any plays.
That’s probably good news for Romo fans and Dallas Cowboys fans, as having him healthy could be a key factor he bases his return on. Romo’s doctors and team doctors would obviously have to approve the return. For now, Tony Romo will probably be practicing his game-calling skills and familiarizing himself with that in order to do his best at CBS. However, fans could still keep a glimmer of hope that the longtime quarterback will once again be on the field, this time aligned with superstar running back Ezekiel Elliott and a playoff-ready Cowboys team.
[Featured Image by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images]