It's funny, I used to say Romo at times especially in the clutch, was careless and cavalier with the ball. That he didn't seem to take this at all seriously enough, always yuk-yuk on the sidelines even (especially) as another loss ticks away. I also complained about some of his stupid habits such as, unbuckling his chin strap after every play - I'd reasoned this was stupid, unproductive and was just one more thing he had to remember to do, pre-snap. I used to say he looked like the Boy Who Made Good never growing the heck up. Of course, I got lustily lambasted for voicing these observations.
But now? All of the above stuff is gone. No longer do we see yuk-yuk, we see him studying on the sideline. He lost the habit of unbuckling his chin strap after every play. He is now not nearly as cavalier and careless with the ball. (He calls it 'reactionary.') It is obvious and now confirmed by Tony himself in King's article, Tony needed to take a step back and really re-evaluate himself and begin to take this a lot more seriously. And he has. His attitude used to be, "Let's go out and have some fun" now it's, "Lets go out there and do a JOB."
I also believe his back injury helped him in this quite a lot. He's said before, it made him have to re-learn everything - including such mundane tasks as getting into and out of bed. What he was already working on now became necessary not just, a good idea. Last year's performance shows the results pretty clearly.
This is all the source of my own opinion of Romo, turning around. He corrected the things I complained about. Credit where credit is due, he re-made himself and it takes a hell of a man to change. And in doing so, changed my opinion of him.
Glad to see this being acknowledged now. Romo changed. He got better where it mattered most. That's all I ever asked for.
