Romo Addresses Past, Present, Future

By ESPN

For nearly five minutes, an emotional Tony Romo addressed his past, present and future as Dallas Cowboys quarterback almost three months after suffering a compression fracture in his back that has kept him out of the first nine games of the regular season.

Romo read a prepared statement that lasted just under five minutes, and did not take any questions.

Romo accepted that he will be Dak Prescott's backup when he returns this week against the Baltimore Ravens.

"He's earned the right to be our quarterback," Romo said. "As hard as that is for me to say, he's earned that right. He's guided our team to an 8-1 record and that's hard to do. If you think for a second that I don't want to be out there, then you've probably never felt the pure ecstasy of competing and winning. That hasn't left me. In fact it may burn more now than ever."

Romo entered 2016 feeling as good about his game as he has ever felt. He was able to go through an entire offseason program and training camp without any issues from a back that required two surgeries in 2013. The twice-broken left collarbone that forced him to miss 12 games last year was surgically repaired in the offseason.

Then on the third play of the Aug. 25 preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks, Romo suffered a compression fracture of his L1 vertebra when hit from behind by defensive end Cliff Avril. He attempted to re-enter the game but was held out. After the contest he expressed confidence that his back was able to withstand such a hit. On the next day he was diagnosed with the fracture.

"To say the first half of the season has been emotional would be a huge understatement," Romo said. "Getting hurt when you feel like you have the best team you've ever had was a soul-crushing moment for me. Then to learn it's not three of our weeks but 10 is another blow. And through it all you have a tremendous amount of guilt on having let your teammates, fans and organization down. After all they were depending on you to bring them a championship. That's what quarterbacks are supposed to do. That's how we're judged. I love that. I still do."

Brady In Deflategate Ad

Tom Brady is finally ready to laugh at Deflategate.

The New England Patriots quarterback, who was forced to sit out four games earlier this year for allegedly being aware of the team's scheme to deflate footballs in the 2015 AFC title game, is featured in a new spot by for Foot Locker that debuted Wednesday.

In the week leading up to Thanksgiving, the shoe and apparel retailer concentrates a week full of shoe releases that it calls its "Week of Greatness."

In the spot with Brady, two fans are walking into a diner having picked up their shoes and are wondering aloud how it's possible that the company is sustaining success.

Brady overhears the two and launches into a speech, which eventually becomes about him.

"Just because something is great year after year, doesn't mean anything is going on," Brady says to the fans. "Why can't some things just be great? It starts with with questions and then questions turn into a assumptions and then assumptions turn into vacations. So why would you punish the Week of Greatness for something that never even happened?'

Foot Locker wrote the spot for Brady and the quarterback was all in.

"We like our spots to allow athletes to poke fun at themselves and people enjoy that," said Jed Berger, the company's vice president of brand marketing. "Our fans and customers like to see these athletes as humans. I don't think anyone has seen Tom Brady like they see him in this spot."