Cowboys QB Tony Romo underwent season-ending back surgery Friday morning

Tony Romo's 2013 season is officially over after his Friday morning back surgery. (G Fiume/Getty Images) On Friday morning, reports broke that Dallas Cowboys

Doug Farrar | Dec 27, 2013

Cowboys QB Tony Romo underwent season-ending back surgery Friday morning /

Tony Romo's 2013 season is officially over after his Friday morning back surgery. (G Fiume/Getty Images)

On Friday morning, reports broke that Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo underwent season-ending back surgery. This was not a surprise as Romo was clearly injured in last Sunday's win over the Washington Redskins, and the only people who seemed to believe that he'd play in the regular-season finale against the Philadelphia Eagles were team owner Jerry Jones and head coach Jason Garrett.

But it was Garrett who finally said the surgery was necessary, per the Dallas Morning News.

"The procedure happened this morning," Garrett said. "We felt the surgery went well. Tony should be able to come home later today and start his rehabilitation. He'll start his road to recovery, sooner rather than later. We're completely confident he will rehab and come back at 100 percent."

Romo received an epidural shot for a herniated disk in his back Monday, and later in the week, Garrett was asked if the NFL had contacted the Cowboys regarding Romo's absence from the team's injury report despite the fact that the quarterback had been experiencing back pain going into the Redskins game.

“He took every rep in practice,’’ Garrett said Thursday. “That’s what we based our injury reports on with all of our players. He practiced on Wednesday, practiced on Thursday, practiced on Friday and took every rep.

“I think everyone’s dealing with something this time of year. If you want to say, ‘How’s that elbow feeling?' with every guy you’d have a pretty extensive injury report.’’

The Cowboys signed Jon Kitna to back up Kyle Orton, who will start against the Eagles on Sunday night, and in the playoffs should Dallas beat Philadelphia and win the NFC East.

As late as Wednesday, Garrett held out hope -- at least publicly -- that Romo could somehow play.

"I saw him briefly today, and he's fighting through it," the coach said. "He's certainly in a situation where he's trying to do everything he can to get himself back with the rehab process and treatment process, like any injured player would. He's a tough guy, as we saw the other day. We'll just see how he does."

Published Dec 27, 2013

DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009, Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine. He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.