When Michael Boley came through the line nearly untouched and drove Tony Romo into the turf, all of Dallas held its collective breath and crossed their fingers. But evidently they weren’t hoping and praying hard enough, because the news is about as bad as it could be as Romo has broken his left clavicle, or collar bone.
Everyone with a Twitter account is reporting the same thing, so that’s not exactly disputed. But it was a tweet by Dr. Mark Adickes — a former offensive lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Redskins turned medical doctor — that caught my attention.
“Tony Romo with left clavicle fracture,” Adickes tweets. “Out 8 weeks with or without surgery. He will probably opt for surgery. 6 week return absolute earliest.”
If we do a little bit of math, that puts Romo back in the lineup in Week 14 at the very earliest, and that doesn’t seem likely. More likely is maybe Week 16 or it completely ends his season. And with the Cowboys likely to fall to 1-5 after a Monday night loss to the New York Giants, keeping a roster spot open for an injured Romo doesn’t seem to make much sense.
But since we are talking about the Cowboys, I expect Romo to eat up a roster spot for about three to four weeks before Jerry Jones and Wade Phillips accept the inevitable and place him on IR. His spot will likely be taken by another quarterback who will likely backup Jon Kitna as Dallas rides out an incredibly disappointing 2010 season.