Exclusive: Roger Staubach interview with SilverAndBlueBlood | April 28, 2014
Dateline Dallas, Texas, April 25 – We caught up with the legendary Hall of Fame Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach at a United Way kids’ football clinic sponsored by Nissan, the Heisman Trust, and Habitat for Humanity at Jubilee Park in Dallas, Texas.
Exclusive: Roger Staubach Interview
We were able to ask perhaps the greatest Dallas Cowboy of them all about today’s team and the responses were unguarded opinions on Tony Romo, Jason Garrett, the state of the team, and even “Johnny Football” Manziel.
Roger Staubach on Tony Romo – These are a couple of very important years for Tony. Tony Romo is a heck of a quarterback. Last year, our defense was last in the NFL and we finished 8–8.
Staubach on Johnny Football (and would he draft Manziel, if he was available): Well, if you told me that Tony Romo was going to get hurt…but I think Tony Romo is a heck of a quarterback and you’d hate to have Johnny Football on the bench and everybody screaming for Johnny Football. If we didn’t have a quarterback, I like Johnny Football. I think Manziel is a very good football player. I think he’ll be a… (Roger left that thought unfinished but seemed to be implying that he felt Manziel would succeed at the next level.)
Staubach on the state of the team: Even last year, if we had been able to keep the Sean Lee’s of the world healthy… But we were 8–8 with a defense that was struggling. So, we could have been 10–6 with a little luck. Hopefully, we move to the 10–6 level and not the 6–10. You need depth. You need to get lucky in the draft and get some high draft choices. I mean, the guy that was MVP of the Super Bowl for Seattle was a seventh-round draft pick. You need to make sure your number one and number two guys (in the draft) are going to be playing for you for a long time. Then maybe a free agent or two, a sixth, seventh rounder that can step in and play. So, the draft is going to really be important for Dallas this year, because we need some help and we need some depth.
Staubach on what Jerry Jones needs to do to get to a perennial contender level: You gotta get a consistent coaching staff. I think Jason Garrett will continue to get better and better and I think Jason’s potential is to be a really great coach in the NFL. So, you gotta have that confidence. It’s not just coaching. It’s getting the right pieces together… You look at the history of some really great coaches. It takes some time… I think Jason is capable of being one of the great coaches in the National Football League.
Staubach talked about Landry’s 20 consecutive winning seasons. There was no free agency then like you have now, so teams stayed together longer. And there is some luck involved in the picking of players and signing of free agents.
One thing no one need ever question: Roger Staubach bleeds silver and blue and always will.