Cowboys reporting of Romo back injury under review
By Peter Smith
The @NFL says the fact that #Cowboys QB Tony Romo was not on the injury report with a back injury pre-#Redskins is still “under review”
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 27, 2013
When reports of Tony Romo initially were saying he would be out for the season, there was talk of the severity of this injury being related to another back injury Romo missed most of the offseason to heal. Jerry Jones made the mistake of admitting that Romo’s back was sore leading up to the game with Washington, but that was not indicated on the injury report. The league is investigating whether or not to punish Jerry in the form of a substantial fine for not including him.
Head coach Jason Garrett was quick to point out in a media availability that everyone is sore at this time of year and including everyone who is sore would make for one lengthy injury report. Garrett is right; which is why the New England Patriots always have an extensive injury report, but they do it because they have to, but also to make it difficult for teams to know who is really hurt and who is not.
The injury report is really not for opposing teams. They may look at it, but the injury report is ultimately for gamblers. Gamblers want to know who is playing and who is not, so they can bet accordingly. So, the question here is really whether or not the league in the form of commissioner Roger Goodell is interesting in punishing one of its owners for the sake of gamblers, who make up a substantial amount of the viewership and interested parties in NFL games from a week to week basis.