Tony Romo says failing to bring Super Bowl to Cowboys is his only career regret

Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo still can’t shake the one accomplishment that eluded him throughout his career. Lifting the Vince Lombardi trophy in the Super Bowl was never in the cards for the 10-year starter and four-time Pro Bowl passer.

“I’m not a guy with big regrets, I guess you could say. The only regret I guess I would have is that… my job was to bring a Super Bowl to Dallas, and I didn’t do it,” Romo said this week on PMT. “So that always sticks with me a little bit. Because you give your whole body, heart, soul, everything into it, and you just wanted that for… all the fans, the Joneses, for everybody that you’re around. 

“And so that one always sticks with me a little bit just because I had that opportunity and just wasn’t able to do it. So that part of it kind of still… sits there.”

During his last full season as the Cowboys’ starter in 2014, Romo threw for 3,705 yards, 34 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Matt Cassel started most of 2015 after Romo was injured, while the Dak Prescott era began the following year with Romo behind him.

With trade and release questions looming after the 2016 season, Romo opted to retire and join the CBS broadcast booth.

“At the end it was like … I could go somewhere else and do it, because I was like, I’ve got to win a Super Bowl,” Romo said. “It’s literally what you play the game for. Nothing else matters. And it just was like … but would that be the same if I went somewhere else and did it? Because at that point, I’d known the game at such a high level. 

“My last 20, 25 games, we were pretty successful, when [I was] healthy. But I was getting injured more often. [The] body breaks down in some ways through the years.”

Romo’s career impact with Cowboys

Romo changed the trajectory of the Cowboys during one of the franchise’s most turbulent eras. An undrafted quarterback who was never supposed to become the face of the team, Romo developed into one of the NFL’s most productive passers, throwing for nearly 35,000 yards and 248 touchdowns in his career while restoring hope to a fan base desperate for another championship run. 

For all of Romo’s brilliance, however, his legacy remains tied to what never happened.

The Cowboys routinely entered January with legitimate expectations only to suffer crushing postseason exits. Whether it was the infamous botched field-goal hold against Seattle or a couple of disappointing games Dallas appeared capable of winning, Romo’s playoff résumé never matched his regular-season production. 

Fair or not, those moments overshadowed countless Sundays when he carried the franchise.

He left the Cowboys as one of the most talented signal-callers in franchise history and a player who elevated the organization far more often than he hurt it. Yet the absence of a Super Bowl appearance — and the career 2-4 record in the postseason — remains the unavoidable footnote attached to an otherwise impressive career.

How Romo compares to all-time greats

One of the most efficient passers in NFL history, Romo’s career passer rating of 97.1 is better than Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, John Elway and Dan Marino, according to Pro Football Reference. He led the NFL in passer rating (113.2) and completion percentage (69.9%) in 2014 in the twilight of his career, but is not a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.