Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins: Is DeAngelo Hall Worth Worrying About?

The hot topic for Monday night's NFC East showdown is the health of many of the Dallas Cowboys star players, mainly quarterback Tony Romo.

After word got out about Romo's cracked rib and punctured lung the media focused on his gutsy comeback win over San Francisco amid injury.  Well, it didn't take long for it to turn to speculation about Romo's availability to play on Monday Night Football this week.  Romo insists he will play and Jerry Jones says it is up to the amount of pain Romo is in come game time. 

Once Tony Romo made it clear he intends to play, the Washington Redskins unofficial spokesman, cornerback DeAngelo Hall, chimed in with his two cents.  Hall says he will be coming for Romo's injured rib.  He states that there is a target on the injured area and he will make sure to ask for some corner blitzes this week, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN.

Tony Romo knows he will be putting his body on the line this week, no matter who the competition is.  It just so happens the Washington Redskins always have a hard-hitting defense whether it is performing well or not.  He has to worry about rookie Ryan Kerrigan, Brian Orakpo, London Fletcher, returning safety LaRon Landry and now the always mouthy DeAngelo Hall. Or does he?

No doubt Romo will not go unscathed against the Redskins this week, who have already tallied seven sacks on the year.  I am just wondering if Hall's malicious comments have much to back them.  DeAngelo Hall has made some very timely interceptions throughout his career with the Falcons, Raiders and Redskins.  He even took back the eventual winning fumble recovery to beat the Cowboys in Week 1 last year, but is he a bone-crunching corner-blitzer?

I'm going to go ahead and say I doubt it.  With a little research I found DeAngelo has one total sack for his career,  And it happened to come on two half-sacks.  So Hall has never taken a quarterback down for a sack on his own.

Sure, there are plenty of hits on quarterbacks that don't go into the sack column.  So, I took a look there too.  Over the last three years, Hall has one quarterback hurry, yes a hurry, and zero quarterback hits. 

So although this is not his forte, he is blatantly asking permission to do something he never does to inflict injury on another player.  I'm all for hitting guys where they are hurt, that is part of the game and always will be.  In this case, though, Hall is asking to be the one to do it and it's not his job.  Even worse, he had to go and make it public.

The only way I see Hall injuring Romo's cracked rib is a late-hit since history shows Hall hasn't gotten there in time throughout his career.  Which will of course end up in a hefty fine and a 15 yard penalty the Redskins do not need in an always tight division rivalry.

So, I am sure Romo is weary of a lot of guys on the field getting a helmet on his rib protector, but he's not worried about DeAngelo Hall.  All Hall has done is draw attention to himself and the situation and maybe he'll get a nasty cut block coming his way to show for it.

If this were Charles Woodson and his nine hurries, four hits and two sacks last year, then I'd say keep your eye on him.  Again, it's not Woodson, it's Hall.  And would we expect that kind of publicity stunt from Charles Woodson anyways?  Most likely, no.