Romo seeks Super Bowl win

Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO

Tony Romo finally has a playoff victory for the Dallas Cowboys to go with his three Pro Bowl selections.

The former undrafted quarterback is coming off another record-breaking season in which he also had a career-low nine interceptions while taking every snap for the NFC East champions. He has a 38-17 record as a starter.

Certainly biased, Wade Phillips already considers Romo an elite quarterback — “I think Tony’s there,” the coach said at the start of training camp.

Yet after only 31/2 seasons as a starter, Romo knows it will take a lot more than what he has done already to be discussed in such terms. He expects to be judged by wins, Super Bowls “and things of that nature.”

“I love the tradition and the history of the game,” Romo said. “So for me, you set out to accomplish certain goals and right at the top the only way to be included in any talk of anything is to go out and win a championship.”

Maybe this will be the season Romo can add that to his glowing yet incomplete resume.

With 20 of 22 starters back from last year’s division winner that defeated Philadelphia in the playoffs, there are expectations that Dallas could end a 15-year Super Bowl drought and become the first host team to play for the championship. The next Super Bowl is at Cowboys Stadium in February.

Romo has even gotten caught up in the excitement, telling a crowd of more than 22,000 at the Alamodome for a kickoff event the night before training camp began that, “We’ll see you at the Super Bowl in Dallas.”

Pro Bowl tight end Jason Witten, one of Romo’s best friends since they arrived as rookies together in 2003, was caught a bit by surprise by Romo’s proclamation. Not the sentiment, of course, but the fact he claimed it so publicly.

“He’s excited. I think he’s confident in where he’s at, and he’s confident where everybody else is at and really grabbing everybody else and bringing them to the level he’s playing at,” Witten said.

Romo, who turned 30 this offseason, has already shattered the team record by throwing for at least 300 yards in 24 games. He had eight last season, when he also set new single-season marks for completions (347), attempts (550) and yards (4,483).

His career quarterback rating of 95.57 is more than 12 points higher than two-time Super Bowl champion Roger Staubach, who is second on the Cowboys list.

And Romo is only now in his fourth training camp as the incumbent starter. This time with some postseason success to build off of, though the playoff victory over the Eagles was followed by a dismal loss in Minnesota.

“It’s significant, but I think the victory was the culmination of a good season,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. “Really it was the whole season in my mind that was very significant.”