Tony Romo may be sidelined for eight weeks with a broken collarbone, but two former Cowboys quarterbacks say Dallas may still be on track for a good season. “It’s not all doom and gloom,” said Babe Laufenberg, who played for the ‘Boys from 1989-1991. Hall of Fame QB Roger Staubach agreed—and then some. Romo replacement Brandon Weeden “has a very good arm. He’s just got to get some experience,” said Staubach, who led the Cowboys to their first two championships. “He can do it. It’s more than playing; it’s also mental. It just takes time and experience.
“The defense is playing well. If they can maintain the pace, that helps too,” Staubach went on. “We’re 2-0 now. If we can hang in there through November and be, say, 7-3, or 6-4, and then get Tony and Dez Bryant back for the stretch drive, get some momentum going into the playoffs … That’s what it’s all about then: momentum. So, good things can still happen.”
Staubach and Laufenberg offered their views to a reporter Wednesday at the new West Dallas home of Mary McDermott Cook, who hosted a get-together for the “$25,000 Circle” of the United Way’s Ruth Sharp Altshuler Tocqueville Society for heavyweight donors. Staubach and Altshuler, who attended, will join Ed Galante as co-chairs of the United Way’s $100 million Unite Forever campaign, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas President and CEO Jennifer Sampson announced. (Quipped Staubach: “I will?”) That campaign is intended to grow the United Way’s foundation endowment, which currently stands at $52 million.
Other faces in the high-rolling crowd Wednesday included Robert Decherd, Nancy Dedman, Ralph Babb, Lyda Hill, and Cook’s mother, Margaret McDermott, the widow of Texas Instruments founder Eugene McDermott. Admiring the spectacular views of Dallas from Cook’s glass-walled digs up from and behind the Belmont Hotel, Staubach jokingly told the guests, “And to think that, 10 years ago, Mary lived in a mobile home right down the hill there.”
