The Dallas Cowboys have received some good news and some bad news the past two days regarding Tony Romo’s back injury. The good news is Romo only sustained a bruise, and the injury is not similar to the one that forced him to end his season early last year. The bad news is Romo isn’t a lock to play against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
Romo received a pain injection on Monday night so he could return in the fourth quarter. During an interview on 105.3 The Fan on Wednesday morning, Jerry Jones basically said Romo can play against Arizona if he’s tough enough.
“At this time, we have nothing medically that would prevent him from playing,” Jones said, per Jon Machota of The Dallas Morning News. “What I mean by that is that there’s nothing to his injury that technically won’t function. This is a function of pain tolerance. But it’s a serious issue that you could look at people that have had a similar type injury and they haven’t played the next week, so that would cause you some concern about him playing.
“It is not, at this juncture, in any way, a season-ending injury. But it is one that raises the question of whether or not he can tolerate a certain amount of pain in that area. That’s about what we know right now.”
It goes without saying that the Cowboys stand to gain nothing from Jones continuing to play doctor. It was weird enough that he went onto the field on Monday to personally deliver the news to Jason Garrett that Romo would be coming back into the game. But now Jerruh is just setting Romo up to look bad if he is unable to suit up on Sunday.
“If Romo’s ready to play, he can play,” he added. “He technically, relative to the medical aspect of it, can play. Now, whether or not he can withstand the things that go with that, relative to pain or relative to executing, that’s a big issue, that’s a big if. But if he can do it, then he’ll play.”
Fans have accused Romo of being injury-prone in the past. In reality, he’s one of the tougher quarterbacks in the game and has played through some painful injuries. He’ll probably do it again on Sunday, but the pressure from Jones — whether intentional or not — only creates a potential headache.
