NEWMAN: ROMO DISTRACTED BY DATING JESSICA SIMPSON

Even in the wake of wide receiver Terrell Owens’ forced exit from Dallas courtesy of owner Jerry Jones, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo still isn’t immune to criticism from his teammates. In a recent interview with Joe Trahan of WFFA in Dallas, per Tim MacMahon of the Dallas Morning News, Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman took a shot at Romo where he said that the celebrity quarterback might be too caught up in the high-profile glare that goes with dating singer/actress Jessica Simpson. When asked to respond to former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman’s comments that Romo “hasn’t fully grasped what being the Cowboys quarterback is all about,” Newman didn’t hold back. “I think that with the situation Tony was in, I think that kind of maybe hurt him a little bit -- being a first-year starter, then you have the limelight with his girlfriend and situations of that nature,” Newman said. “It’s going to take away from him being a quarterback, being a successful quarterback. “He won 13 games and everything was perfect, but now after this past season, it was, ‘Is he doing enough for the team? Is he working hard enough? You know, he’s got this girlfriend, so ...’ I think that once he inherited the starting quarterback job and his relationship got into the national media attention, I think that that was something that definitely hurt and took away from Tony Romo being a great quarterback.” As MacMahon points out, Newman clearly wasn’t joking around. And Newman, who has a lot of credibility in the locker room and in the media for his bluntly honest takes, might not be speaking only for himself at Valley Ranch.