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Tony Romo settles down as Jessica Simpson a no-show at Cowboys
game
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Somewhere, Jessica Simpson was cheering on
her man.
The starlet may have been in the stadium Saturday night rooting
on Dallas quarterback Tony Romo.
Or she may have been hundreds of miles away from her new
boyfriend.
Either way, it didn't affect Romo's play.
Romo bounced back from the worst statistical performance of his
career - which Dallas fans blamed on Simpson's attendance at his
last game - by throwing for 257 yards and a touchdown while
leading the Cowboys to a 20-13 win over the Carolina Panthers.
He said after that his pop star girlfriend was in attendance,
then played it coy when pressed for her location.
"I don't talk about my personal life," he said.
Unlike last week, when she cheered him on from a luxury box clad
in a pink No. 9 jersey, Simpson was never spotted at this game.
And even if she was here, he never let it bother him.
Instead, he settled back in the pocket and aimed for the blonde
hair - no, he wasn't trying to pick up another girlfriend, and
clearly, these fans with the flowing blonde hair weren't his
type.
Romo held steady in the pocket, tossed a sideline hitch to
Terrell Owens and watched him sprint 10 yards in for the score.
Nothing was distracting Romo this week. Not the controversy
surrounding Simpson's appearance at his last game, not the three
portly male Panthers fans wearing long blonde wigs in the end
zone and not the smattering of Simpson masks fans waved in the
stands.
"I know she saw all of that tonight. She was at the game
tonight, so I don't know," he said. "I didn't hear too much
stuff about it. I'm not talking about this. Good times, guys."
The controversy surrounding the starlet started last week when
Simpson watched Dallas' 10-6 loss to Philadelphia. Cowboys fans
immediately linked Romo's clunker of a game to her appearance,
and the pop star quickly became persona non grata in Dallas.
Owens playfully joined the bashing a few days later, joking that
Simpson should stay away.
"Right now, Jessica Simpson is not a fan favourite - in this
locker room or in Texas Stadium," Owens said.
He backpedaled later that same day, insisting his comments were
in jest. But it kicked the drama into overdrive, much to the
delight of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
"There's a little part of me that hopes it doesn't go away,"
Jones said after the game. "It's kind of fun for that kind of
bantering to go about. Not at her expense. But I think it's
about how popular she is, how pretty she is and her fame.
"But it has never had and won't ever make a difference on how
Tony Romo plays."
The fans still think otherwise, and the folks at RuinRomo.com
encouraged fans to print a cutout of Simpson and wear it as a
mask to distract the quarterback. Only a few were spotted
sprinkled through the stands, and the wig-clad trio in the end
zone could hardly have been mistaken for Simpson.
Romo had been fully expecting a barrage of the masks, and said
in a taped interview on the NFL Network the masks looked nothing
like Simpson.
"I'll tell you what, I wouldn't date a girl with those eyes. Her
eyes are normally a little better than that," he said holding a
mask.
He said the criticism has bothered Simpson, but Romo said he's
taking it in stride.
"I don't care how the perception is of me. I know at the end of
the day I'm trying to be this type of person, I'm going to try
to do things the right way and I'm going to try to do everything
I can to help this team win. That's basically the way I live,"
he said.
"But it hurts me when it hurts people that are close to me. Some
of the journalistic integrity this week I thought was a little
poor in some ways. But that's part of being in the public eye."
The start had the makings of a rough day, as Romo fumbled the
snap on the first play of the game. But chalk that mistake up to
personnel, not the bombshell. Pro Bowl centre Andre Gurode
missed the game because of a knee injury, and Romo had to adjust
to grabbing the ball from Cory Procter.
The two had their rhythm set by the second series, a 13-play
drive that ended with Owens' touchdown and a 7-0 Dallas lead
with 1:30 to play in the first quarter. Romo finished the first
quarter a solid 9-of-13 for 79 yards and the score.
He later led the Cowboys on a 75-yard, second-quarter scoring
drive that gave them a 14-0 lead. A third quarter interception
was his only blemish of the day.
"It's been ridiculous, but fun and certainly I hope it wasn't at
her expense because I think she is a very sweet lady," Jones
said. "But it certainly didn't affect Romo's play tonight or any
other time. That is ridiculous."
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