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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why so many are convinced the Cowboys are that far off or moving in the wrong direction

I fear this will go on for the entire offseason, but there's a real dichotomy right now in the NFL prediction business with regard to the Dallas Cowboys' prospects for the 2013 season. I have heard and read some who believe they could be one of the worst teams in the league. But while anything's possible, I personally don't see that. As of now, I think they have a strong chance to be the best team in the NFC East. Field Yates seems to be believing along with me in this possibility, though his piece here Insider acknowledges and addresses some critical things that need to go right for the Cowboys to win the division for the first time since 2009.

The three elements Field cites are the ability of the defense to transition to Monte Kiffin's Tampa 2, the performance of the offensive line and quarterback Tony Romo's ability to play up to his contract. All are significant concerns, especially after the line was atrocious in 2012 and Romo threw those three interceptions in the Week 17 division title game in Washington. But I'm zeroing in on the offensive line. I think the defense has the personnel (especially with Sean Lee and Bruce Carter at linebacker) to make Kiffin's defense work. And I don't buy the idea that there's something fundamentally wrong with Romo that will always make him play poorly in big games. I think he's an excellent player who, given enough chances, will come through one of these days. I think talent rises, even if that process can be frustrating and take more time than fans like.

For me, the Cowboys are all about that offensive line and whether it can play beyond its pedigree and expectations. Dallas now has two first-round picks among its offensive line starters, with Tyron Smith at left tackle and Travis Frederick likely the starting center. But they need better guard play from Nate Livings, Mackenzy Bernadeau, Ronald Leary or whoever ends up with those spots, and they need Doug Free to be something more than awful at right tackle. Honestly, if they just get adequate play from those spots, as opposed to the abysmal, turnstile-type performance of 2012, and if Smith and Frederick perform like first-round picks, the offense should work. They do not need to be a great offensive line. They just need to be an acceptable one. Romo, Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, Miles Austin & Co. can take care of the rest.

I guess I just don't see why so many are convinced the Cowboys are that far off or moving in the wrong direction. Yes, they only won eight games each of the past two seasons. But the division champion in each of those years won nine and 10 games, respectively. The Cowboys don't play in the AFC East or the NFC South, where you need 12 or 13 wins to have a shot at a division title. They play in the NFC East, which has four flawed teams and no dominant one and has had four different champions in the past four years. This division is always up for grabs, and while we're still more than a couple of months away from prediction season, I don't see why anyone would be in a rush to rule out the Cowboys this far in advance. From this vantage point, they seem to have as good a chance as anyone to win the NFC East in 2013. Maybe, depending on the health of Robert Griffin III and his knee, the best.