In one commercial break between a series of NFL games Sunday, Tony Romo and/or the Dallas Cowboys were mentioned five times.

“America’s team,” as it has been nicknamed for years, is apparently back in the vein of popular culture.

This is good considering a fair portion of the credit can be given to Eastern Illinois’ alum and former quarterback Romo.

Romo is currently a fan favorite in Dallas and in the NFL.

This is helpful for getting attention to Eastern.

Though Eastern has three head coaches (Sean Payton – New Orleans; Brad Childress – Minnesota Vikings; and Mike Shanahan – Denver Broncos) who have graduated from Eastern, none of them have the popularity and attention Romo receives daily.

Though this is Romo’s fifth year in the NFL, he has never been as popular as he is now.

And through the powerhouse medium known as the NFL, he is garnering more attention.

Romo’s jersey, and Cowboy jerseys in general, have been more popular on campus this year. His jersey is listed on Nfl-football-jerseys.com as one of the most popular jerseys. This seems like going beyond just fair-weather fans buying into a successful team.

It looks like Romo snagged some supporters because of where he is from.

But it’s not as though he’s just being handed this attention and popularity for nothing, Romo has put together a solid season so far.

Through five games this season, Romo has a quarterback rating of 93.9. He has thrown for 1,508 yards with 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing 59.1 percent of his passes.

The Cowboys have many games in primetime slots. They will play in two Thursday games, one of course being the annual Thanksgiving game, and will also play in a Saturday game. They have one Sunday Night Football appearance left this season. They have already played two Sunday Night games and have had one Monday Night football game.

So, yes, we get to hear Madden talk about Romo and Brett Favre one time this season. To put the scheduling in perspective, they have more prime time games than the reigning Super Bowl champs, the Indianapolis Colts.

And that is the only negative I see in any of this.

While I think it’s a great thing Romo is getting so much attention and promotion, I hope it doesn’t get too high before he really proves himself.

Romo has played in one playoff game and that did not go so well for him, with the botched snap against the Seattle Seahawks.

Romo and the Cowboys get more attention than the Colts – not that Peyton Manning of the Colts doesn’t have a ridiculous amount of television time and promotion himself, but it just makes more sense. He has records piling on other records for passing and has a Super Bowl ring.

I just want him to avoid any hard crashes back down to reality from a few bad games and the media turning on him.

Romo is a recognizable figure in the NFL and helps bring more exposure to this campus, and I don’t want to see that stop. But that could happen with everyone building him up so quickly.

At an even pacing, Romo might be able to solidify a secure placing in the top passers of the NFL for the next few years. His popularity should increase more, and that is an exciting prospect for Eastern students and football fans.