Has There Been A Serious Fallout Between Tony Romo And Jason Garrett?

The greatest teams in NFL History have unshakable foundation at the most important positions – Quarterback and Head Coach. The truly elite teams in NFL History have pillars of stability here, but more than the great teams they have an unbreakable bond between the two. It’s what the World Champion New England Patriots have in Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. It’s what the Dallas Cowboys used to have in Tony Romo and Jason Garrett, until everything fell apart.

During the recent NFL Combine Jason Garrett was interviewed by NFL Network’s Melissa Stark and Steve Mariucci. At the beginning of the interview Melissa and Mooch question Jason Garrett about something he stated during one of his portions with the media, that he hadn’t spoken to quarterback Tony Romo since the season ended.

Mariucci playfully jokes about how preposterous this is and proceeds to grab his iPhone, saying that he’s going to FaceTime Tony Romo. This is a move that a lot of celebrities are seemingly making these days as Jimmy Kimmel got to FaceTime with Romo before hosting the Oscars, but when this particular call happened Jason Garrett turned a shade of red that would make his hair look dark.

Ultimately Tony Romo doesn’t answer the call and an obviously relieved Jason Garrett goes on with the rest of the interview, but the question really is one that most members of Cowboys Nation have asked themselves since seeing/hearing about this – how have Jason Garrett and Tony Romo not communicated at all since the season ended?

“Yea I just haven’t… you know, I don’t talk to a lot of players this time of year.” -Jason Garrett when asked about why he hasn’t spoken with Tony Romo since the Dallas Cowboys season ended.

This interview took place on March 2nd, and I’m here to tell you that the dish Jason Garrett served in it is a whole bunch of bologna. Here’s why.

March 8th, 2014: North Carolina At Duke

Over the last few years – yes, years – we’ve seen that Tony Romo and Jason Garrett have an affinity for Duke basketball. This affinity is made all the more large by their relationship with Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski. The Duke rivalry with the University of North Carolina is one of the best that sports has to offer, and in 2014 Tony Romo and Jason Garrett took it in together in person.

This game happened on March 8th, 2014, but Jason Garrett told us on March 2nd, 2017 that he doesn’t typically talk to a lot of players this time of year… right? That can’t be possible then because the dates match up so similarly. Maybe he meant in terms of the NFL calendar?

To be totally fair to Jason Garrett the 2014 NFL Combine took place February 19th through 25th, so this was a good while after the NFL point-in-time in which he’s referring to, but it is worth noting that Free Agency began in 2014 just three days after this photo was taken.

March 2015: Another Duke Trip, With Double The Party

One year later the Cowboys were coming off of a painful Divisional loss in Green Bay – where Dez Bryant definitely caught it – and had an offseason decision to make between essentially re-signing Dez Bryant or DeMarco Murray.

Y'all ???????????????? look who I met today. Tony Romo, Demarco Murray, Jason Whitten, and Jason Garrett #duke #cowboys pic.twitter.com/c1xnWzSMkk

— Ammm (@doitlikeam) March 3, 2015

It was the latter that joined Romo, Garrett, and Jason Witten as the foursome spent a few days at Duke and took in the annual UNC game on March 5th, 2015. The annual Scouting Combine was the previous February (17th through 23rd) as it had been a year before, but NFL Free Agency didn’t begin until March 10th, 2015.

We see here again that not only is Jason Garrett with Tony Romo in back-to-back years around the calendar time he suggests that he’s not with any players, but he’s actually with multiple players. We now have two prime examples of “Whoa Coach, what are you talking about?” to chin-scratch over; however, there’s one more.

March 28th, 2016: A Jason Garrett Birthday Trip To The Boss

The third March of Romo/Garrett shenanigans didn’t involve a high-quality college basketball tilt, but instead a special 50th birthday present for Coach Garrett to go see Bruce Springsteen at Madison Square Garden.

For some reason Tony Romo, Jason Witten and Jason Garrett were at the @springsteen show tonight at MSG pic.twitter.com/8L2wfRaByy

— Yaron Weitzman (@YaronWeitzman) March 29, 2016

Of course with DeMarco Murray having lost his mind an offseason before when he went to Philadelphia, he was not part of the special club’s little trip in 2016. We did however see Romo, Garrett, and Jason Witten rocking out to one of the best music has to offer.

The 2016 NFL Scouting Combine was February 23rd through February 29th and Free Agency began on March 9th, so the 2016 ‘Boys Trip took a little longer to happen than in years prior. The fact of the matter though is that Jason Garrett does indeed hang out with players – let alone Tony Romo specifically – around this time of year, while he told Melissa Stark and Steve Mariucci that he did not.

It’s an unfortunate reality that the relationship between Jason Garrett and Tony Romo is seemingly not as strong as it once was. It’s understandable though for all of us when you consider the events that have transpired since “Born In The USA” was sung by the most iconic members of America’s Team. Also for what it’s worth this year’s Duke/UNC game at Chapel Hill took place four days after the Super Bowl, so it may have been more difficult to attend than in year’s past, plus you know the whole fractured relationship thing.

The fate of Tony Romo is one that is still up in the air, and a road that appears to have no end in sight. This has been one of the more exhaustive things that Cowboys fans have had to go through in quite some time as it has been an emotional roller coaster full of debate along the way. Whatever happens with Tony Romo though, it’s fair to assume that things will never be the same between him and Jason Garrett.