Romo is capable of leading the team back to the Super Bowl

Deserved or not, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is a lightning rod for criticism. He's the face of a franchise that bills itself as "America's Team" but hasn't been to the playoffs since the 2009 season. In the three years since, Dallas hasn't finished above .500, although Romo was rewarded with a six-year, $108 million extension in March.

In Romo's defense, he's in a tough spot; owner Jerry Jones refuses to relinquish his GM duties, which has led to holes on the roster that have nothing to do with the quarterback. As we noted almost a year ago, Romo is one of the NFL's most efficient passers. In 2011, he ranked fourth in value-per-play behind Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. In 2012, Romo was sixth. Clearly, he's not the Cowboys' biggest problem.

In fact, Hall of Famer and former Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach thinks Romo is capable of leading the team back to the Super Bowl.

“I think Tony Romo is a championship quarterback,” Staubach said. “He can take a team to a championship. He can't do it by himself, but I really believe he can do it. I just see what he does on the field, the plays he makes, the throws he makes, the sense that he has to move in the pocket, so I'm pulling really hard for Tony because I really believe he is one heck of a quarterback. And that's a feeling from somebody that I didn't say that about any other quarterbacks except for Troy Aikman. I think Tony is the right quarterback, and we're lucky to have Tony Romo.”

High praise … that's likely to be ridiculed by Romo's critics. But Staubach points out that the Cowboys could have been much better than their 8-8 record.

“Dallas will have a shot at it,” he continued. “When you're 8-8, you can be 10-6. The Giants a few years ago were 7-7 and ended up 9-7 and got to the Super Bowl. Last year, Baltimore was kind of hurting at the end of the year. If Dez Bryant doesn't have two fingers out of bounds, who knows. So at least I think Dallas has got the talent to be competitive with the league. We have to hope that we can get to the playoffs and once you're in the playoffs, anything can happen.”

Of course, the shoulda-coulda-woulda theory holds for every team. The difference is that the good ones find ways to win the games they shouldn't while the mediocre ones spend January and February on their couches with the rest of us.

So is Romo a championship quarterback? The better question might be: Can Jerry Jones get out of his own way long enough for the front office to surround Romo with players who give the Cowboys a legitimate shot at a title run?

For now, the answer to the latter remains a steadfast "no way."

If an NFL player decides to come out as gay, Cardinals coach Bruce Arians isn't worried about how the players would react, he's more concerned about the fans.

"I don't think the locker room would have any problem with it," Arians said on Wednesday. "The problem would be with the fans. I think especially opposing fans. Some of the things that are said are so over the top and out of control that I can imagine what some fans would say to an openly gay player."

Arians is probably somewhat right, and if you use your imagination, you can probably think of a few words an inebriated opposing fan might use.

That being said, Arians doesn't think an Arizona player coming out would affect the Cardinals locker room.

"As a coach I can probably speak for our players, too. I don't think anybody would have any problem with it," Arians said.

As for the fans having a problem with a gay athlete, Arians isn't alone in his thinking. Former NBA star and current TNT basketball analyst Charles Barkley feels the same way.

"Fans and the regular public are a lot more homophopic than players, so I 100 percent agree with Bruce Arians," Barkley said on 97.5 WPEN-FM in Philadelphia. I'm glad he had the courage to say that because a lot of coaches, you know, they kiss up to the people, but I respect that."

If there is a backlash against a gay player, the league will be prepared for it.

"Our league and team security people would be ready to monitor any kind of public reaction that might not be appropriate, including scrubbing social media," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in April. "We would assist the player in dealing with any adverse public reaction of any type, if there is any. Hopefully there wouldn't be and it would be a non-issue, which it should be."

The problem for the league is that it's not a non-issue or else people would stop talking about it. And it will probably remain an issue that players and coaches are asked about until a player actually comes out.

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Peterson's instinct always is to go for the end zone

Entering his third NFL season, Patrick Peterson is impressing a new staff of coaches with his eye-popping skills.

Coach Bruce Arians says he knew the young cornerback was special but now that he's seen him up close he's even more impressed.

``The first interception the first day, he tipped it to himself and made a one-handed catch,'' Arians said. ``I knew he was special, but until you get around an athlete and practice with him you don't know how special he is. This guy's as good as there is.''

Peterson was back with the team at minicamp this week after missing some OTA sessions due to a death in the family. His goal this year is to return to the big-play punt return success of his rookie season while improving his performance as a shut-down cornerback after making the Pro Bowl at the position last season.

``It's all about putting everything in one pot,'' he said, ``and the recipe's gonna be some gumbo.''

Not that he's above reproach.

Peterson picked off Carson Palmer's pass and zipped toward the end zone during Wednesday's practice, and Arians noted that it was a two-minute drill and late in the game, if you intercept a pass, go to a knee to avoid a costly fumble.

Peterson's instinct always is to go for the end zone, especially since as a defensive back he doesn't get the ball in his hands all that often.

``I want to get back to getting in the end zone,'' he said. ``That's what I love to do. There's nothing like putting up points as a defensive player. It's all about putting everything together. It's about getting back out there and everything clicking on all cylinders.''

As a rookie, after Arizona selected him fifth overall in the draft out of LSU, he set an NFL record with four punt returns for touchdowns, including a 99-yarder to win a game against St. Louis, making the Pro Bowl as a special teams player. Last year, opponents bottled him up on the sidelines. Even if he did get it in the open field, defenders seemed to be on him so soon he had no room to break free.

``Those guys were really dialed in last year on making sure they had fast gunners that could get down there and put pressure on me as I'm trying to field the ball and get elusive with those guys with the ball in my hands,'' Peterson said.

Last year, he said, there were some problems with the punt-return blocking, problems that the new coaching staff is working to correct.

``Not only I believe, but the team knows,'' Peterson said, ``once the ball is in my hands and I have five or more yards, special things can happen.''

Peterson said he doesn't feel he needs to prove himself all over again to a new coaching staff. He has, after all, a body of work for them to recognize. He has started every game at cornerback since he arrived in the league.

``I have 32 games under my belt as a starter,'' he said. ``I believe I'm going to continue to prove myself growing into my own over these last couple of years. You know it's all about getting better. Proving myself to these guys, I don't think that's necessary. These guys, either they played against me or they saw film of me. So it's all about bettering myself and working hard every day.''

The Cardinals cut their workout a bit short in the stifling heat Wednesday. While they were on the field, they were watched by a contingent of college assistant coaches, as well as by University of Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez.

The three-day minicamp began with a session open to the public Tuesday night at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, with an estimated 12,000 fans in attendance.

Before that practice, Cardinals President Michael Bidwill confirmed that the team would hold its training camp in the stadium, ending its long run at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

The practices at the stadium will be open to the public. An exact date for training camp has not been announced.

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