Jerry Jones Did The Right Thing By Tony Romo In Releasing Him 

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Jerry Jones does right by Tony Romo in releasing him

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We should not martyrize Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

The impending release of quarterback Tony Romo, as reported by NFL Network\'s Ian Rapoport and Jane Slater on Wednesday, would not have happened without one of the finest seasons for a rookie quarterback in NFL history by Dak Prescott. Jones believes Prescott can be the club\'s starter for the next decade and in Year 1, Prescott made the Pro Bowl, threw for 3,667 yards, 23 touchdowns and just four interceptions

played better in the post season than Peyton Manning did in his first three cracks at a playoff game.

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It would not have happened if it didn\'t make at least a little financial sense. Dallas will end up saving about $5 million depending on how they designate the cut which, in the current salary cap landscape, does not seem like much, but could buy the team a stable of middle-tier role players they so desperately need on defense (they will also need to absorb nearly $20 million in dead money).

It would not have happened without some incredible team building and trust, thanks in large part to Jones\' patience with head coach Jason Garrett and insistence that the team build a beastly offensive line.

We should, however, commend Jones for doing the right thing, doing it on time and backing up his word.

Romo will be set free tidily at 4 p.m. ET on Thursday and, as Rapoport mentioned, embark on a Peyton Manning-style free agency tour that will more-than-likely include the AFC South champion Houston Texans and 2015 Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. Instead of an awkward, caged period when Jones could have waited out a desperate team\'s pre-draft trade offer, he is allowing Romo to seek the treatment granted only to the league\'s most elite players.

He is rewarding Romo for bowing out gracefully during the team\'s rapid rise to an NFC East title.

"It is implied that we will work in the best way we can for the mutual interest of Tony and the Cowboys. That was just implied," Jones said last week, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "That\'s important here. Now we\'ve got to abide by every league rule. We can\'t have agreements without it being within the boundaries of the NFL. But when you\'ve got a situation like we got, we\'ll do the do-right rule. That\'s it. Very important. We do the do-right rule. We have that kind of relationship."

This might seem like simple human decency, but the NFL is both cutthroat and stressful, which means teams make decisions in their best interest first, or bungle those decisions in their most sincere efforts to benefit the club. Look around the league at quarterbacks who are either locked in an endless, bungled franchise tag melodrama or promised the long-term stability of a starting quarterback before getting the rug pulled out from underneath them -- a lofty team option yanked off the table forcing them to start all over again. All along, they are praised by their coaches and general managers.

It\'s entirely common and acceptable to deal franchise legends and Super Bowl heroes. Some coaches have made an empire out of it. It\'s just as acceptable to deal expiring assets into football no-man\'s land in an attempt to recoup some value, like the Patriots did with Jamie Collins, instead of letting them walk away in peace and choose their own destination.

Jones, as Rapoport mentioned back in January, could have pulled a Sam Bradford and held onto Romo until the price was so unbelievably high that he couldn\'t say no. Injuries happen all the time in training camp. Best-laid plans in the draft get destroyed and some veterans show up to camp out of shape or on the decline. Romo would look pretty good to a playoff hopeful in August with no other starters in sight.

He could have kept Romo on the roster, absorbed the high salary and slept tidily with the satisfaction that a four-time Pro Bowl quarterback was backing up Prescott just in case the fourth-round pick pulls a Nick Foles and plunges out of contention as the next great NFL starter. Had I been an emotionally devoid general manager, that prospect would have been tempting.

Instead, as Rapoport mentioned, Jones shopped around a little bit for a trade. When that didn\'t happen, he did the right thing. Just like he said he would.

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