Yesterday was a sad day. Not cosmically sad. Just personally sad. Why? What happened? Tony Romo retired from football. So duh…sad. I saw every snap of Tony Romo’s career. Tony isn’t my childhood quarterback. That was Rodger Staubach. Rodger is one of the big reasons I’m a Cowboy fan. But Tony was my boys childhood quarterback. They watched him play. They became Cowboy fans at least in part, because of Tony. And lets face it, they would be out on the street if they weren’t Cowboy fans. Kidding…not kidding…I digress.

Tony Romo captured me because he played the game like a kid. His love for the game. His joy was everywhere…on full display every play. The other thing that made me love him was the tragedy, the drama. Tony is a tragic hero. His career marked with glory and the agony of defeat. There have been some classic meltdowns. The fumbled snap in Seattle. The late game interceptions against Detroit, the Broncos, the Skins. And yet, there is the 4th quarter comebacks. The most in the NFL during his career. No one was better under pressure, which is crazy to say, because the general opinion is Romo is a choker, and yet he isn’t. The furtherest thing from it. Yet that agony made me love him more. In the face of defeat and adversity, Romo would step up to the mic after the game, and he would in utter rawness show us the results and the pain of defeat. We would see the gears grinding, as he would try to make sense of these losses, whether “the catch,” was a catch (it was a catch) or the meltdown against the Giants after the trip to Cabo or losing to Washington and Philly in a winner-take-all game to end the season. In those moments Romo on the stage in full view trying to make sense of losing and winning. Why do these things happen? Why do they happen to this team, to me? He wouldn’t give us just token answers, but would honestly wrestle with the pain and the loss. This made me love him more.

Another thing that made me love him were the stories told about him around Dallas. It was so great to be in Dallas during the beginning of Romo’s career. He was a star. He was growing into this moment and this stage. And yet we would hear these stories about how Romo helped a lady who had a flat in the pouring rain. Stopping on the side of the Tollway, getting out in the rain, changing the tire. Stories of surprise visits and charitable interactions. Tony was humble. It wasn’t all about him. He always gave credit to teammates and coaches. He sarcastically sloughed off praise. He laughed at himself. And then there were the injuries. This past year had to be the most painful. Healthy, ready, poised for a great season with a good team, and boom, a scramble in preseason, a broken bone in the back and a career over. Romo was asked about his injuries and the end of his playing career in 2016 in an interview with The Village Church. For Tony the Gospel was the thing. It was the thing that made him say he would be ok when he walked away from the game.

On Sunday, we talked about Jesus’ sixth word on the cross, “It is finished.” One of the tough things about life is that we both want things to be finished and are sad when they are. We want things to be complete. To see a job done. To watch our team win a championship and celebrate in a victory parade. To change the last diaper. To pay that last bill. And yet, we grieve these finishes. We are sad when these endings come. Romo hung it up yesterday. His career appears to be finished. Questions rang out on talk radio and ESPN, “Is Tony a Hall of Fame QB?”, “Where does he rank among Cowboy Quarterbacks?”, “How can he hang it up if the Broncos or Texans are ready to at least give him a shot to be their quarterback and chase the ring that would validate all those earlier questions?” These are no small questions even if CBS is offering millions to become a broadcaster.

As a fan, I have loved Romo even more, because of this need for validation. I love defending Romo’s career to friends, acquaintances, strangers. Why? Because the numbers show forth his greatness, and yet, he hasn’t won a Super Bowl. Hasn’t even been in one. Hasn’t even been in a conference championship. And this falls on the quarterback, even if he has been good in these games. They lost. And so yesterday, the reality was and is, Romo’s career will not be validated. He won’t win the big one. He won’t play in a Super Bowl. There will be lots of jokes and memes about him when he announces his first Super Bowl for CBS. They will go something like this: “What’s the only way for Tony Romo to get to the Super Bowl? By stealing Phil Simms job.” No validation. How can he walk away with those unanswered questions? How? Well, in the Village podcast Romo explains it. It’s the finished work of Jesus on the cross that allows him to walk away. When Romo was just starting out with the Cowboys, he was about to be cut. Romo was fighting for his NFL livelihood. He knew the QB numbers. He knew he was the odd man out. He saw the writing on the wall. He described how he went out in one of those final practices and decided that because of who he was in Christ, because of Jesus and His finished work that He was free to just go out and throw it. To let the outcomes be given to God. To know that this won’t define him. “I didn’t worry about the results,” he said. He didn’t because the Gospel was becoming real to him. The Gospel said to him, “It is finished.” Romo could walk away from glory and validation, because he already had these things in Christ. Well, that very day, a press conference was called and Dallas’ starting QB Quincy Carter was being released. Romo was saved. He would make the practice squad and a couple of years later he would become the starting QB for the Dallas Cowboys. This career would be filled with glory and defeat. And the same thing that sustained him on that day in 2004, sustained him in every win and loss and supports him as he walks away — the finished work of Jesus.

Yesterday was a sad day as a fan, because I won’t have the validation of Romo’s career. When Dennis throws it in my face that Romo failed. I can’t say, look at that last season, that last game, that last drive. It isn’t finished. And yet, it is. His career is over. I will miss watching him play. And the work of Jesus will be for Romo the thing that upholds him in the face of critics, in the face of questions and doubts about his career, his ability to win the big one. I know I am thankful for that after every sermon, after every failure, after every one of my losses. The Gospel of Jesus reminds me that I am free. That I am validated. That I am vindicated. That even though I lose, I win.

~ Justin Edgar