In sports, the light always shines brightest on those who play signature positions for high profile teams: center field for the New York Yankees, point guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, and quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. These are the positions seemingly reserved for the most famous names like DiMaggio, Mantle, Magic, Staubach, and Aikman. History tends to forget the ones who didn’t win multiple championships or reach the Hall of Fame. For example, few people remember very good – maybe even great – players like Mickey Rivers, Bobby Murcer, Norm Nixon, Nick Van Exel, or Danny White.
In 1978, at the tender age of eight, I had the honor of meeting the soon-to-be Hall of Fame quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, Roger Staubach. Since that moment, I’ve been die-hard fan of “America’s Team” through thick and thin. After Troy Aikman retired in 2001, I witnessed a parade of mediocre quarterbacks that would rival those of the Cleveland Browns of late: Quincy Carter, Ryan Leaf, Chad Hutchinson, Vinny Testaverde, and the two Drew’s – Henson and Bledsoe. Mercifully, that middling and second-rate quarterback play came to an end in 2006 when Tony Romo replaced Drew Bledsoe during a Monday night game against the New York Giants.
After five seasons of uninspired leadership, Romo was a breath of fresh air and invigorated the team with his passion, heart, and will to win. Undrafted out of Eastern Illinois, Romo signed with the Dallas Cowboys as a free agent in 2003 and had little hope of making the team. He did, however, make the team as the third-string quarterback and worked his way through the ranks until he became the starter in 2006.
Last week, Romo retired due to injuries sustained throughout his career and will now be part of the media as the number one analyst for CBS working alongside Jim Nantz. After watching Romo for more than a decade, there are clear lessons – both business and life – that can be learned from his journey.
1. Maximize Your Potential – It’s difficult to imagine someone getting more out of their skills than Romo. He is the third leading passer in the history of Eastern Illinois behind New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton and New England Patriots quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. Despite this, he holds the Dallas Cowboy team records for touchdowns, passing yards, lowest career interception percentage, and, most surprisingly, most fourth quarter comebacks/game winning drives. Through hard work, continual effort, and discipline, he squeezed every drop of production out of his natural talent. We often wish people – including ourselves – would maximize their potential. Romo did exactly that.
2. Handling Adversity – It wasn’t always easy to watch Romo as he had some very public failures: a botched hold that killed a game-winning field goal during a playoff game in Seattle, spending an off week during the playoffs in Cabo San Lucas with then girlfriend Jessica Simpson before a loss, and throwing three interceptions in a losing effort against the lowly Detroit Lions in 2011 come to mind. Each time he failed, he stood tall and accepted the consequences tactfully and professionally. Romo understood that being accountable to coaches, teammates, and fans would diffuse the situation. Adversity will happen to everyone; it’s how that adversity is handled that reveals character.
3. Maintain Perspective – After a painful playoff loss to the New York Giants in 2008, Romo stated, “If something in sports is the worst thing that ever happens to you, you’ve lived a pretty good life.” At the time, he was assailed by the press and fans alike as not having enough passion or competitive fire to win. Romo was always passionate about the game and, quite possibly, the most competitive person in the locker room. He did, however, have perspective and understood that, while painful, losing a football game is not comparable to health and family crises. The people who can maintain a healthy perspective on temporary setbacks – whether it be sports or business – are the ones who are poised to win in the long run.
In football, the quarterback is not only the most difficult position to fill, it’s also the position with the most amount of pressure. Last year, the Cowboys had a bit of a resurgence under quarterback Dak Prescott and their future seems bright. In many ways, Dak Prescott reminds me of Romo: he was a fourth-round draft pick that few thought would ever start in the NFL, he maintains a very even keel when grilled by the press, and has a competitive fire that inspires both teammates and fans.
Meet the new boss – same as the old boss.
Bill is president of PromoCorner, the leading digital marketing service provider to the promotional products industry, and has over 17 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. In 2014, he launched brandivate – the first executive outsourcing company solely focused on helping small and medium sized-promotional products enterprises responsibly grow their business. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, president of the Promotional Products Association of the Mid-South (PPAMS), and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, developing operational policies and procedures, creating and developing winning RFP responses, and presenting winning promotional products solutions to Fortune 500 clients. He can be reached at bill@PromoCorner.com.