Romo on the hot seat, truth behind contract jealousy, more Mailbag

Without Terrell Owens around to take the fall, Tony Romo has no more excuses for failing to win in the playoffs. Simon Bruty/SI Ross Tucker's Mailbag Ross Tucker will answer your questions every Friday in his mailbag. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND Follow Ross Tucker on Twitter

We took an informal poll on my Sirius NFL Radio show to gauge the mood of Cowboys fans in the wake of Jerry Jones' decision to release Terrell Owens. A clear majority of the callers, say 75 percent, were ecstatic about the move, describing it as one of the best days in the history of the franchise and predicting an upcoming Super Bowl appearance. The other callers argued T.O. wasn't the problem and the blame should be placed squarely on the shoulders of one man. Head coach Wade Phillips? Nope. Offensive coordinator Jason Garrett? Uh-uh. To a man, every caller who was disappointed with the Cowboys placed the onus on quarterback Tony "Big-Game" Romo.

None of the callers really did Romo any favors. Even the ones happy now have created through-the-roof expectations about the 2009 season and beyond. Suffice to say, Romo is on the hot seat. Big-time. As in, if the Cowboys don't win a playoff game next season, Romo should get the ax.

He's already failed in three seasons as a starter to lead his team to one measly playoff victory, a team with a roster so stacked that it's perennially one of the two or three best in football. How many chances does one guy get? With T.O. gone, there should be no more excuses for Romo. None. No more team chemistry dissertations or distraction discussions. Romo got what he wanted, and now he better make the most of it.

T.O. fell on the proverbial sword this year. Romo should take the fall right around this time next year if the Cowboys don't win a playoff game yet again.

Now, onto my inaugural mailbag. It was a lot of fun going through your e-mails and seeing your questions, so please keep them coming.

A comment about Hometown Discounts: Is Albert Haynesworth's life going to be any different with $75 million of the Redskins' money instead of $65M of the Titans' money? Beyond the abstract concept of numbers in a bank database, what does it REALLY mean to make the extra money? That his grandchildren might have to work some to supplement their trust fund, instead of it taking three generations to dilute his wealth to the point that his descendants have to work?
--Jim Campbell, Nashville

My guess is it is probably true that the more money you are going to make, the more likely it is you would be willing to factor in other considerations and take some sort of hometown discount. Believe me, I wish I'd been in that situation so I could speak from experience, but it wasn't in the cards for me.

In terms of the difference between $75 million and $65 million, my guess is it probably wouldn't affect his life all that much. But if you look at it strictly as compensation related to a specific task and nothing more, why not get paid more for the same job? Ten million is a huge sum, and even if it wouldn't materially affect Haynesworth's lifestyle, that is money he could give to charity or use to perform other good works if he were so inclined. At the very least, he would have the freedom to use it however he saw fit, because he would have earned that money and that right.

Are you serious about players looking for money "for their families?" Given guys like Pacman making it rain in clubs, the proliferation of bling and customized Escalades, I figure that only the occasional Ross Tucker type actually cares about his family. The evidence seems to show that most of these guys care about the money as a way of keeping score. See Anquan Boldin and the like.
--Claire Fewtrell, Leeds

I can certainly understand how Pacman's antics and the MTV Cribs-style excess of some players can be a turn off for a lot of fans. I assure you, however, that those guys are the minority, not the majority. The ridiculous, over-the-top spending by some would be hilarious if it weren't so sad. The guys with five or six expensive cars who are also wearing thousands of dollars worth of jewelry are usually the guys who are flat broke within two years of the end of their career, and that is a crying shame.

Your second point is a good one. A lot of guys do look at their contracts as a sign of respect and a measure of their status among their peers around the league. I think for some guys, getting as much as or more than so-and-so becomes the greater obsession. Players are constantly keeping tabs on the other players around the league and it can be a bitter pill to swallow when a comparable or lesser player gets a larger contract. But the salary cap goes up every year, sometimes significantly, so comparable or lesser players are necessarily going to get bigger deals.