​Tony Romo gets real on past desire to leave Cowboys and reason for NFL retirement originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.Loyalty runs in the blood of most Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks. Dak Prescott has received many offers to play for other teams but has always chosen to stick with Jerry Jones. Tony Romo experienced the same thing throughout his career, and there was an actual time when he considered leaving America’s Team. However, there was one major factor he considered before making this call, and it eventually led to his NFL retirement.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement13 years, that’s how much Tony Romo has spent with the Cowboys throughout his playing career. He notched four Pro Bowl selections while also reaching the NFL Divisional Round twice. But there was a time when Jerry Jones and the front office started to pivot towards Dak Prescott despite Romo still being there.This is where Romo experienced a crossroads. He could stay with the Cowboys to fight for his QB1 spot, retire from the NFL completely, or jump ship to another team that would take a chance on him. As history shows, all Cowboys and NFL fans know he chose the second option.Romo explained why this was the case on Pardon My Take.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement”But at the end it was like, I could go somewhere else and do it. Because I was like, I got to win a Super Bowl. It’s literally what you play the game for. Nothing else matters. And it just was like, but would that be the same? If I went somewhere else and did it? Because at that point I’d known the game at such a high level. In my last 20 to 25 games, we were pretty successful when healthy. But I was getting injured more often,” the former Cowboys star quarterback declared.After having played 156 games, throwing for 34,183 passing yards, and completing 248 passing touchdowns, Romo decided to call it a career instead of being a roadblock to a Cowboys Super Bowl run. His body started catching up to him, which rendered him unable to fight for his spot as the Cowboys’ star with an arm cannon.”The body breaks down in some ways through the years. I think it was as simple as it just wouldn’t feel as important; it would be important to me, but it was for the people I was around. All the fans that we had,” he added.The Cowboys have still not won a Super Bowl since Romo left the squad. But Jones and Prescott have their best chance in the upcoming 2026 season. Will they be able to fulfill Romo’s NFL career regrets?AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement