Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images(SEATTLE) — Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo escaped serious injury on Thursday night, despite leaving the team’s preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks after just three snaps with an apparent back injury.
Romo was sacked by Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril and immediately grabbed for his lower back. Romo underwent two back surgeries in 2013 and missed a game in 2014 with transverse process fractures in his back.
Calling the hit Avril laid on him “probably as tough of a hit I’ve taken on the back as I’ve had in the last five years,” Romo said he felt fortunate to take the hit and hold up. While Romo didn’t return to the game Thursday, he did not require X-rays and the team has not yet had him undergo an MRI or other testing.
Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett said Romo felt better as time passed, and that the team didn’t believe there was any serious injury.
Last season, Romo’s left collarbone was fractured twice, causing him to miss 12 games in total.
In the last two seasons, the Cowboys are 15-4 when Romo starts and just 1-12 when he is unable to play.
“I just think, we, everyone had a scare,” said Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. “He was not hurt and he said he wasn’t hurt. He wanted to go back in. He could have gone back in and played.”
Jones added that soreness after the hit would not prevent Romo from playing in the team’s Sept. 11 season opener against the New York Giants.
Romo has played just 16 snaps this preseason. The team’s last preseason game will be on Sept. 1 against the Houston Texans — but Romo hasn’t played in a preseason finale since 2006.
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