Filed under: Cowboys, NFL Fans
Is there nothing Tony Romo can't do? Beat the Browns? Check. Woo Jessica Simpson from John Mayer after he had already dumped her? Check. Make Wade Phillips less goofy-seeming by comparison. HUGE CHECK.
And just when you thought Romo was the model of perfection, he goes and saves a couple from a burning automobile, somehow making him more perfect. Okay, slight exaggeration, but Romo, returning home after the Cowboys thoroughly waxed the Browns earlier in the day in Cleveland, pulled over to assist Bill and Sharon White, who were busily changing a car tire after suffering a blowout.
"I don't know, a hundred cars, probably more, had to go by. Nobody was stopping," said Bill. "That's just kind of the way it is in today's world."
And then ... "Bill was fooling with that tire, and I was standing beside the car watching him," Sharon said. "The next thing I know, a nice-looking young man, very well-dressed, but with something strange on his chin, he walked up, smiled, and said, 'Hey, you need some help?' "
Sharon hadn't even noticed a car pull up. So now it's Bill and the well-dressed young man both bent over a flat tire at midnight on a Sunday, trying to figure out why a faulty air compressor plugged into the cigarette lighter was leaking more than pumping.
Bill admitted to not getting a good look at the guy (probably didn't want to seem like he was staring at that thing on his face), but it didn't take Sharon long to figure out that she was in the presence of greatness (well, save that Seattle game from the '06 playoffs, anyhow):
"I didn't want to bother him," Sharon said, "but I asked again, 'You're Tony Romo, right?' " I knew it was him by then. But he smiled and said, 'Yes, ma'am.' " Sharon: "I did something no 50-year-old woman should be doing, but I screamed real loud, and then jumped up and hugged him."
Bill was more concerned with Romo not spilling the beans on how the Cowboys had fared earlier in the day; the Whites were headed home to watch the game on TiVo.
In all seriousness, this is an amazing story, and it says a lot about Romo the person. And although it's a relatively small gesture, it's something the Whites will certainly never forget -- and probably something most of us wouldn't have even thought about doing.
Look, we're driving a 10-year old car that is sitting in a parking lot with a flat tire in the dead of night. He could tell by that we're nothing special. But here's a young man making millions of dollars, and he's got all this fame and glory, and he does this?" The Whites couldn't thank Romo enough. "But if I ever had the opportunity, I'd also like to thank two other people. His mom and dad," Bill said. "They obviously raised him right. We've got kids about his age. We know how difficult it can sometimes be in this day and age."
Well, except the part about finding the right girl. But otherwise, I couldn't agree more. And for all the mindless stories we see about "making it rain" and "puppy-murdering quarterbacks," it's refreshing to read that everybody in the NFL hasn't lost their mind.
