Any quarterback who has some success playing for the Dallas Cowboys is bound to be compared to Troy Aikman. When you lead your team to multiple Super Bowls, you instantly become the benchmark for success for any of your successors. When Aikman said last month that Tony Romo is a better quarterback than he was, most of us thought he was insane. Apparently most of us includes Romo himself.
“I think first, whenever Troy Aikman says anything in a positive way about you as a quarterback, it makes you feel good,” Romo told Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. “For me, it just means that Troy thinks that you’re doing something right, and I think that’s exciting from a quarterback’s perspective, coming from a guy who’s one of the greatest players ever to play in the game.
“But I don’t think I belong in that discussion, so Troy I think was being nice. But definitely I’m not going to wash it away and say it doesn’t matter because it makes me feel good, so I’m going to take that. But I do think that there’s no discussion. I think Troy Aikman is on his own mountaintop by himself.”
Aikman was obviously just being modest and was also trying to give Romo a confidence boost that he oftentimes looks like he desperately needs. As far as Cowboys legends are concerned, Aikman stands in a class of his own. He played for some of Jerry Jones’ best teams of all time, and unless Romo wins a Super Bowl his name won’t even be mumbled in the same sentence as Aikman’s at the end of Tony’s career.