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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The league is looking at adding a third game in London

The NFL has never made a secret of its desire to get its mitts on fans in other countries. (Neither has any sports league, for that matter.) And according to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the league hopes to take the next step in doing that by adding a third London game and a franchise in England.

Goodell, speaking at a New York University conference on Tuesday, confirmed an October 2012 report from CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora -- as well as his own comments since then -- that expansion into London's market share is a key goal for the league.

Per Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post, the league is looking at adding a third game in London "very soon." Additionally, the NFL believes the game is getting a good reception in London and is interested in putting a franchise overseas.

And who could that franchise be? Well, it sure does sound like it might be the very team La Canfora mentioned back in October: Jacksonville.

However, after Goodell's talk, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello told Vito Stellino of the Florida Times-Union that Goodell did not indicate the Jaguars would play two home games in London. Additionally, the Jaguars declined to say anything further about a second game.

"Our focus is on one game per year we are committed to play there the next four years," a Jaguars spokesperson told Stellino. "That's all we're thinking about."

What is happening, though, is the NFL is going through what Aiello called an "internal process" about whether or not to give a single team a second game in London in the future. Aiello said no decision has been made at this time.

This is pretty much the essence of what La Canfora reported in October. And as he noted at the time, it's not like owner Shad Khan is shying away from having the Jaguars become international.

"The NFL is going to be developing an international fan base. Why shouldn't it be the Jaguars?" Khan said in December of 2011. "In all honesty, internationally, they don't know the difference between the Jaguars and the Steelers."

And Khan's comments should have been a precursor to the possibility of multiple games featuring one team as well as the Jags playing multiple games overseas.

"I think it would serve Jacksonville well to play a game or two overseas, to get the name Jacksonville out. If you look at some of the international premier league teams, they have a huge fan following overseas in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, etc."

Now having noted all this, it should be pointed out that Khan has said he wants and plans to keep the team in Jacksonville. So don't bury them just yet.

But be reminded when discussing who might land in London that the NFL really wants to have a franchise overseas and the NFL almost always gets what it wants.