doesn't mean Danny White doesn't see his touchdown record topple with no reaction. He knew about it and he wishes it hadn't happened.
"I have mixed feelings," he chuckled. "It's always nice to lay claim to such a prestigious record with a franchise like the Dallas Cowboys. It was pretty significant. I mean, Roger and Troy didn't throw 29 touchdown passes. I'd have loved it if Troy broke the record, but he didn't. You know the old saying, records are made to be broken? That was said by someone who never held any records. I will no longer be the top touchdown passer in Dallas Cowboys history, and it's something I give up grudgingly."
But not with a grudge, because Danny White is a Tony Romo fan.
"I've never met him," White says of Romo, "but he seems like a good guy. I think he's a legitimate superstar in the league. I like his demeanor. He's upbeat and positive. He looks like a team guy, and he doesn't seem to have an ego that gets in his way. There's an innocence about him that makes him fun to watch."
Assured that Romo is in fact what he appears to be, White says, "Well, I'm glad the record was broken by a guy like that and not some jerk."
If you think Danny White watches today's game and wonders what kind of numbers he might have put up with 21st century rules and schemes, you're right, and it makes him just like Aikman and Staubach in that regard.
"I see it in college and pro ball," says White, who still pays close attention to the game in his capacity as coach of the Utah franchise in the Arena Football League.
"Passing games have really been developed. It would be very interesting to see what kind of numbers we would have with these schemes. Some of the college numbers get a little inflated with the overtime rules, and there's a bigger emphasis on avoiding interceptions. You see more guys throwing the ball away. I do it myself as a coach. I really wish I had been coached a little more with an emphasis on not trying to force the ball in to make a play."
How he was coached and what he did do were obviously pretty good, though. It's taken almost 20 years for a Romo to come along with a Garrett and an Owens and a Witten and turn White's records inside out.
It's also more than 20 years, by the way, since 12-2 Dallas met 12-2 Washington in 1983, the season in which he threw those 29 touchdowns, in a December game that rivals this week's with the Packers as the biggest in club regular-season history. What does White recall about the buildup to that game?
"Not much, to tell you the truth," he muses. "Did we win?"
Ah, no, Dan, that was the game where you tried to audible Tom Landry's fourth-down call and it didn't work.
"Oh," he laughs, "you mean the 'No, Danny, no!' game? My greatest claim to fame. The Dallas Morning News caught Coach Landry looking more discombobulated, mouth open and hat askew, than anyone had ever seen him."
Doesn't that sum it up? Three straight NFC championship games, club records for yards and touchdowns, and all anyone remembers is "No, Danny, no!"
Time and records march on. But remember, it was Danny White's record Romo broke. The one-man Buffalo Bills.
