It has been three years and a contradiction remains unacknowledged by those who claim none exists.
Jones and Garrett denied Romo the opportunity to reclaim the starting job as the team headed into the postseason.
Romo's health is repeatedly stated as Jones and Garrett's partial (sometimes said as sole) reasoning for what they did. Both men did what they did to "remove any chance of Romo suffering another injury that would result in highly probable paralysis."
Yet
The team's head coach and highly invasively influential general manager, two men who effectively ended Romo's career in Dallas with their decision, allowed Romo to take the field against the Eagles afterwards.
In a regular season game.
In a National Football League game.
Against an opponent who not only had some degree of animosity towards the Cowboys franchise but also did not share any degree of compassion for Prescott's long-time predecessor. Neither Jones nor Garrett could be manhandled by Romo's desire to play one last time (that much cannot be argued by anyone), especially if their greatest concern was keeping Romo from becoming a quadriplegic.
Regardless, Romo "talked" Jones and Garrett into letting him play--the exact same two men he could not talk into letting him play.
Maybe both men made some non public agreement with the Eagles to not lay a finger on Romo. Perhaps they foresaw all the Eagles' defensive backups' hearts swell with empathy and knew without any doubt none would want to crack Romo's severely degenerative back (his medical records were blasted throughout the internet/everybody knew his physical condition/still do) like an egg. They were 100% positive Romo would live to see Candice and the kids while standing on his own two feet later that day and not from an intensive care unit bed unable to wiggle his toes.
Yes. The logical rationalization is two men, who cared for Romo more than a son or brother, allowed him to step on the field one last time, to play a possession in one of the most physically demanding professional team sports in the world, against a franchise whose fans infamously laughed like adolescents as Irvin laid sprawled hurt on the field, where tens of thousands of injuries have occurred over the course of NFL history in the blink of an eye.
Makes perfect sense. To some.
Go Cowboys.