NFL Leaders: Who Should They Be?

In response to a recent article I wrote about Tony Romo and his leadership role for the Dallas Cowboys, I received several comments from readers. They were adamant that Romo shouldn’t be expected to be the leader of the team and that it was, in fact, the coach that should be the leader.

I respectfully disagreed with these particular readers and left it at that. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt that I was completely right in my assertion that players on the team, especially the quarterback, have got to be the leaders on a team.

Most importantly, it’s the players who go out to do battle on the field, and only the players. If you’ve ever played team sports, especially football, you know what it’s like to feel a part of something, to experience that feeling of camaraderie and teamwork. And with football, you’re going out onto the field to face people who are interested in causing you physical pain, which raises football to a whole different level.

For me it was never the same as playing baseball or basketball. I never got that feeling in the pit of my stomach that I got from walking onto a gridiron. It was fear. It was scary playing football. But that was one of the things that made it so great. It always challenged me, as well as my teammates, and we formed a bond among us that people who were outside the team would probably never understand.

This is why I feel that only people who have been through the same experience, the same trials, can be leaders of a team. You have to go through the same blood, sweat and tears as your teammates if you want to be their leader. There’s no other way. There’s no other way you can earn the respect that is needed to be a leader.

There’s no way a coach can ever replace on-field leaders.

You hear players talk all the time about the leaders on their team, and I’ve never heard one of them mention anyone but their teammates. The old saying goes that you lead by example. If that’s the case, then no coach will ever be the real leader of a football team. Only the guys on the field can do that.

And when it comes to the highly specialized case of playing quarterback in the NFL, like it or not, the quarterback is the guy that people look to. When it’s the fourth quarter and there are 10 sets of eyes looking back at you in the huddle, the owners of those eyeballs have got to know that you can do what’s needed to win. They have to have complete confidence in you.

That’s what it means to be an NFL quarterback. That’s what it means to be a real leader.

In my article, I questioned whether or not Tony Romo has the ability to truly lead the Cowboys and to win a Super Bowl. I’m not the first to do it and I probably won’t be the last. The reason the question comes up is that people who know this game know that leadership is more important than having a big arm or running a 4.5, 40. It’s the real leaders who’ve won the most Super Bowls, not necessarily the best athletes.

Romo is only one of a number of quarterbacks in the league that have the physical ability to play the game but who have not yet stepped up to be true leaders, inspirational leaders, of their teams. The upcoming season will provide another opportunity for all of these guys and it will be interesting to see who among them steps up to the next level and completes the maturation process required to be an NFL quarterback.