the begining of March, before the OTA’s have even started. I like him competing in a sport that focuses on making decisions, accuracy, and consistency; it is a sport that works on the mental side and is low impact so he is not going to injure himself playing golf (it is less likely than playing a charity b-ball game). I understand that it creates a perception problem with the fans but really I hope he does not worry about what we think.

I think he needs to be concerned with what his coaches and teammates think, and if they see him out there every week coming to do his time in the weight room, practincing with his WR, studying his assignments he was given at the end of the season then I think they will respect him for what they see during the offseason. Would it help if he had a PR manager to soften the image, maybe, but winning on the field is the only thing that really counts, and if he does that with regularity then the rest becomes less significant. Romo pushed up his scheduled work out before the open, so he is keeping his priorities straight; I doubt he would have played in the open even if he qualified because it would have interfered with a mandatory minicamp that was scheduled. I remember him missing out on a charity golf function where someone bid to have him play as a teammate because of football related event took a higher prority and he paid the guy’s donation to make up for the change.

I agree with you, but I will go one step further. Romo doesn’t just need an image consultant – he needs to change his behavior. Quit clubbing in LA with the bimbo girlfriend who is a magnet for the paparazzi. Quit jetting off to Mexico and frolicking around on the beach at public resort to relax before the season is over. Quit sulking on the sidelines. Most importantly, Romo needs to step his game UP in December and January, not down. Success allows you to engage in the nonsense behavior listed above without public perception repercussions and without your teammates questioning your leadership. Romo has not enjoyed success or performed particularly well when the games matter most. As a result, he has a public perception problem and has not been able to emerge as the leader this team needs him to be.

Tony Romo plays the most visible and important position on the most closely followed and scrutinized team in the most popular sport in America. He cannot escape the fact that he will be harshly judged by fans and the media based on little more than sound bites and snapshots. Too bad – life’s not always fair or rational. To this point, he has not learned how to handle the high profile position he currently holds. Tony Romo can either change his behavior or start playing well and winning when the games matter the most. Both would be preferred, but changing either one will ease his PR problem and earn some leadership credibility.

Finally, while I understand and agree with the point you are trying to bring home, I absolutely cringe when Tony Romo is compared to the likes of Tom Brady, Montana, MJ, Magic, or Wayne Gretzky – those guys earned the pass they were granted by fans and the media because they had already proven to be winners and were at the top of their respective sports. Romo is nowhere – and I mean NOWHERE near that class of athlete.

I started off by saying that he gets critized for things that another more proven athelete would recieve praise. I hope he wins a Pro-Am one day. I do not have an issue with his golf game. Its a great game and a great outside activity for a pro athlete. Also, I think that the public perception that he does not care about the losses is false. I picked the thread title because his poor showing on the back nine.

The issue I have is he does not do enough to dispel the public notion that he not as focused on winning football games as he needs to be. He also lets the perception that he does not care what the public thinks stand.

An "I don’t care what anybody thinks… " is considered reasonable and even nobel by some. For a professional who works in the public eye, its a selfish and incompatible with being an effective leader. Caring and doing something about pubic perception are part of the job of any highly paid professional, but especially important for the public face of an organization who is getting paid 12 million dollars a year to fill that role.

How Tony Romo is viewed by the public does not just effect him, it affects every Cowboy employee from a marketing and media management perspective. Even if everyone in the locker room decides that public "I don’t care what anybody thinks… " is fine and worthy of a field leader it still impacts the team. Image impacts coperate sponsership decisions and seat license sells and that impacts team revenue and jobs in the organization.

The point of my post was that Tony has a public perception problem and is not doing enough to address it. The response of most here is that the perceptions are wrong and unfair. That may be true, but its still his responsibility to address it.

He and the team can’t do anything about the reputation for late season and playoff fades issue until December, but in the meanwhile he should do what he can to avoid being perceived as a celebrity first QB.

Before I start, great post Trey. Eloquent well thought-out post. Unfortunately, this piece of news coincides with Romos’ major knock against him. That is, that he “folds under pressure” and “can’t finish”. There is one simple way to eliminate 90% of that garbage, and that’s simply to win in a playoff atmosphere. Eli Manning was unmercifully criticized prior to his Superbowl win (of course, having a successful brother at the same position didn’t help him any). All Romo has to do, is win the “big one” when it counts and all the detractors points become moot. Then we also won’t have to hear the “How many years since you won a playoff game” crap as well. I’m banking on Romo to step beyond it this year.

ridiculous as well, not surprisingly.

When asked about people criticizing Romo for playing too much golf, Emmitt let out a hearty laugh.

“Man, this is the off-season,” Emmitt said. “Whatcha think a guy is gonna do? Sit around? I mean, as long as he’s training and taking care of his body, which I think he is. Maybe golf is a way to relax. There’s a lot of metaphors between golf and football.”

http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/

Well said Emmitt, well said.

Golf is the tempest in a teapot here…made larger by other issues Tony has.

It’s that Tony’s decision making OFF of the field (his choice of girlfriends, his entourage at L.A. nightclubs, his trip to Cabo, etc.) have become low hanging fruit for those that want to make a connection between those things and his questionable decision making ON the field (fumbles, forced throws, failure to check down, etc.).

To me, it doesn’t matter whether he golfs or not, but he is and will continue to be a target for those that want better results out of their 67 million dollar quarterback, aka Super Bowl wins and opposing teams’ fans who know which wound to pour salt in.

In all honesty, I’m fine with it, because an emotionally mature LEADER who is comfortable in his own skin will use that kind of scrutiny and criticism to fuel his competitive fire and elevate his play (and that of his team) to a higher level. The knock on Tony is that he isn’t an emotionally mature guy and the whole locker room divisiveness thing is even more damning in this regard.

In the end, he needs to win the big one.

That, and that alone, will shut up the critics. Otherwise, get used to being on one side or the other of this inane yet omnipresent argument.

Not that long ago I got excited about a V Testaverde performance in a pre-season game because years of QC, D Henson or R Leaf was such a bad dream.. Woke up a couple of years later to Drew Bledsoe at the helm of my beloved team. Don’t believe one single time any concern about playing golf or celebrity g’friend was ever expressed with them. We just wanted someone who wouldn’t lose the game for us by the end of the 1st half.

TR’s problem is somewhat of his own creation – his remarkable rise after complete obscurity created some expectations he has, to date, been unable to fulfill. Golf, girlfriend are irrelevant. Play is relevant, preparation is relevant, desire is relevant. Not one coach or team mate has questioned any of those. I actually appreciate the fact he stays true to himself and doesn’t try to ‘manage’ his own perception.Wonder -any recent players who’ve focused more on their own image/prominence than the success of the team? How’d that work out?