Former NFL exec Mike Lombardi laments Romo miss

[sago1]

Saw below article on DMN blog. Really interesting to see what a former NFL exec now thinks about Romo and his admission of how little he knew about Romo back in 03 around the draft time. Seems to me he ratifies the view most Cowboy fans feel about Romo. I also included comments made by several people in response to Breer's article.

Lombardi laments Romo miss

1:41 PM Mon, Jun 16, 2008 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
Albert Breer http://www.***BANNED-URL***/blogs/images/email-icon.jpg E-mail http://www.***BANNED-URL***/blogs/images/email-icon.jpg News tips
Former NFL exec Mike Lombardi, who also writes for SI.com, has established a blog that we stumbled upon this afternoon, with a reader guiding the way.
And at the top of "Lombardi on Football" is an interesting post on Tony Romo, golf and Jessica Simpson. Lombardi says he's amazed by Romo's prowess on the links, doesn't see why everyone makes such a fuss over Jess, and really regrets that he didn't know much at all about Romo prior to the 2003 draft.

Did you see Tony Romo play golf yesterday? I thought he was amazing--- playing outstanding golf on a tough course, showed you his eye hand coordination and his competitive fire. I think Romo is one of the top quarterbacks in the league and feel he will continue to improve. He takes way too much grief for his off the field dating habits and I wondered had he gone to Cabo with anyone other then Jessica Simpson, would anyone care? I get pissed off everytime I watch him play that I did not know about him before he came out in the draft.

The best way to learn in scouting is to learn from your mistakes, Often I read the media guides of other treams to learn about the plaeyrs back grounds and college achievements. When I was with the Raiders, Jim Harbaugh our quarterback coach loved Romo coming out of college. He wanted to pick him in the fourth or fifth round. So when Romo started to play well,I looked at his background----
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And Lombardi goes on print Romo's bio from college, saying "Read that bio, add in the fact that he is a stratch golfer, competitive and you have to ask, what more did he have to do to get drafted? I admire the Cowboys scouting staff for signing him and still pissed off I did not know enough."



Comments

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Posted by What??? @ 2:19 PM Mon, Jun 16, 2008 [/FONT]

You just now "stumbled" across Lombardi's blog? Juh?? That just proves that you don't even read the NFL content on DMN, much less other outlets. Gosselin recommended this blog weeks ago, and it's been mentioned on everything from Sirius NFL Radio to the NFL Network.
I really have to question how much this guy Breer actually pays attention. Seems like he's too caught up in his pseudo-scout world to even pay attention to what ACTUAL NFL personnel people have to say.

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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Posted by Seven @ 2:20 PM Mon, Jun 16, 2008 [/FONT]

Still... the most fascinating story in Football currently. One of the most in all of sports.

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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Posted by BVG @ 2:26 PM Mon, Jun 16, 2008 [/FONT]

If there were such a thing as blogger malpractice, Breer has admitted to it here. How do you not know about Mike Lombardi's blog?? Insane.

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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Posted by Megan @ 2:42 PM Mon, Jun 16, 2008 [/FONT]

i appreciate his support and admiration for tony!

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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Posted by Johnny Wishbone™ @ 3:03 PM Mon, Jun 16, 2008 [/FONT]

Lombardi is such a tool. If you've been watching him (Romo) these last couple of years, how could anyone be amazed at the moxy he displays at anything? And nobody, including Romo, knew what he had (skill wise), and by Romo's own admission, he worked hard after becoming a Cowboy to get where he is, that's what people don't get. Anyone can say, "I loved Romo coming out of college", but he was by no means a diamond in the rough, he was a lump a coal that willed himself into a diamond (pressure courtesy of the Tuna). While everyone else was waiting on Quincy and Drew Henson hand and foot, Romo was using his noggin to understand the dynamics involved in being a successful starting QB in this league. He still is. And when you think about it, his lack of natural ability is probably what drives him to maximize the tools he possess. The Cowboys didn't discover gold after countless years of mining when they signed Romo as a UDFA, they found a winning lottery ticket in the parking lot, they just had to scratch it, "Hey Sean Peyton, got a quarter?"

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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Posted by Stu J U©L @ 3:05 PM Mon, Jun 16, 2008 [/FONT]

not to be a contrarian but I didn't know Lombardi had a blog so thanks for posting the link!

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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Posted by DRockus @ 3:23 PM Mon, Jun 16, 2008 [/FONT]

yeah, i appreciate the link too. and i have to respectfully disagree with ole Johnny Wishbone... he is obviously very athletic. his ball speed was tops in his class when he came out of college, his sports IQ is off the charts, his release is alltime great, he is talented in multiple sports, and he has experienced an almost unprecedented level of success for his time in the league--plus all the accolades before he came to the nfl. i don't think you could deny that his time behind Bledsoe was crucial, but to say he has a "lack of natural ability" would be silly, IMO.

 

[theogt]

How crappy of a personnel guy do you have to be to not know about the Walter Payton Award winner?

"Former" seems to be the proper title.

 

[DallasFanSince86]

How crappy of a personnel guy do you have to be to not know about the Walter Payton Award winner?

"Former" seems to be the proper title.

 

[ThreeSportStar80]

Romo was a pretty good college player, you have to scout player of the year guys no matter what level they've played on...

 

[tunahelper]

Like to hear him cry about missing on Romo.

 

[sago1]

Glad to see him crying but so should a lot more GMs. What did they all miss that Sean Peyton & the Cowboys, Shanahan of the Broncos & Wisenhuant (sp?) of the Cards didn't miss. Unfortunately for the Cards & the Broncos, Romo opted for the Cowboys.

 

[burmafrd]

Romo had a long way to go when he got into the league to be ready to play. BP protected him and let him learn at his own pace - letting Henson and the other wannabe's get all the pub. I really doubt that if he had gone anywhere else that he would have made it. I really do not see what other team would have protected him the way we did and give him that much time.

 

[BaybeeJay]

How crappy of a personnel guy do you have to be to not know about the Walter Payton Award winner?

"Former" seems to be the proper title.

Wild speculation, but I think there are a lot of "crappy" personnel guys running around in the NFL.

Lombardi's blog is pretty good, actually provides thoughtful insight and interesting info (i.e. what scouts look for in certain positions). Makes me wish more nfl blogs were run by former scouts and gms.

 

[sago1]

Agree that the Cowboys protected Romo & gave him the opportunity to develop at his own speed (helped on by QB coach David Lee, now QB coach in Miami). Parcells succeeded because his successfull head coaching record ensured no one (including Jerry Jones) would even think to attempt to force him to start Romo before he was ready. So although many critize Parcells on this board for some draft mistakes/FA signings/conservative play calling on both sides of the ball, his handling/development of Romo may be one of his greatest legacies.

Romo also didn't attract media attention initially as our 3rd/4th QB & thus Cowboy fan pressure to play Romo never materialized. So the media was focused much of the time on Quincy Carter, then Chad Hutchinson & then Henson. It was fortuitious that Parcells brought in Testaverde as Carter's backup in 04 which probably enabled the Cowboys to jettison Carter when it became necessary early in TC. I'm going to presume the Testaverde acquisition was simply an effort to provide a quality backup to Carter--not a harbinger that the Cowboys already had concerns about Carter both on & off the field.

Here's a few more tidbits of interest re the whole Romo development:
1. There have been rumors out there for some time that Testaverde was actually brought in to develop Romo--not to help any of the other QBs. Certainly while Romo has given a lot of credit to Parcells, he has also said that it was Testaverde who taught him how to become an NFL QB; ie. studying game film, making notes to himself, physical conditioning particularly upper body & legs, etc.
2. Reports also surfaced Romo was unhappy when Testaverde was not resigned after the 04 season. It also later came out that the Cowboys resigned Romo after 04 season to a 2-3 contract with a $2M SB. That signing generated almost 50 pages of discussion on this board about why Cowboys paying Romo so much money to essentially be a life long backup. BTW: That contract contained a clause which guaranteed Romo considerable playing time in preseason games before this new contract ended.
3. It also became public at some point that Sean Peyton felt Romo was ready to start in 05 & didn't believe bringing in Bledsoe was necessary. Of course one of first things Peyton did as new head coach of the Saints in 06 was to unsuccessfully try to trade a 3rd rounder to the Cowboys for Romo. Later in preseason game against Seattle, Romo got his first start & played most of the game--much to the displeasure of Bledsoe. It was Romo's play in that game which for the first time drew local media/fan (and national) attention to Romo.
4. Finally during a game in 07 season Aikman said he had a conversation with Bledsoe in the 06 season whether he thought Romo could help the Cowboys win if he was needed to play. Bledsoe responded that he was very concerned that, if he got hurt, he would never get his job back from Romo.
5. Parcells admitted in 07 that there were serious discussions on the coaching staff (don't know if Jerry involved in any way) about whether to start Romo over Bledsoe but they decided stick with the veteran. But Parcells for the first time in his entire career, started giving Romo snaps in every practice in 06 season. The rest is history.

 

[burmafrd]

Romo could very well be BP's greatest service to the cowboys, even beyond changing the organization and atmosphere.

I do not know if Romo could have done the job well in 2005. Maybe, maybe not. I do not think he would have been as good as he was in 2006, though.

 

[CrazyCowboy]

ROMO sure does have the MOXIE!