Back in late January, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones decided that he had to stop talking about the Tony Romo situation. Jerry had spoken several times about Romo’s future since the Cowboys’ season ended a couple weeks earlier, and it wasn’t doing anyone any good. 

“We’re at a juncture now that we need to just cool it in our public conversations about what we’re going to be doing or not doing there with Tony,” Jones said at the time. 

To Jerry’s credit, he lasted a whole seven days before talking about Romo again. On Feb. 1, Jerry declared, “Whatever really comfortable solution for all parties here, if I can come up with it, ... if I have that answer, I should be president of the United States.” 

Eight days after that, Jerry admitted that he still had no idea how the Romo saga was going to play out. 

“It’s no secret that I just think so much of him as a person and think so much of him as a player,” Jones said in a radio appearance on 105.3 The Fan, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “The team we have, especially the offensive side of the ball, was built for Tony. So this is what it is. It’s a juncture that we have to address.

“I don’t know how ultimately we will resolve this. Nobody should be alarmed because you don’t have all the answers. There are some issues here that you just got to see how the cards are played. But we’ll work through this. We have a sound enough foundation together that on an individual basis we’ll get through this.”

Four days later, Jerry let us know that the thought of Romo leaving the Cowboys was one he didn’t even want to have. 

“That bothers the heck out of me because I know wherever he goes, he’ll start. I know wherever he goes, he’ll compete, absent injury,” Jones said during an appearance on ESPN Dallas. “We saw a guy [Tom Brady] several years older than him win a Super Bowl. I think he’s that kind of player, so you’ve dealt in your own conference, somebody that has the possibility to come back and beat us.”

That was Feb. 12. Jerry then went an incredible 19 days without breaking his rule, but doing so must have nearly driven him crazy, because he’s now addressed the Romo situation again on three consecutive days. 

On March 4, Jerry said that he could see Romo back in Dallas next year, possibly as Dak Prescott’s backup. “I have not ruled out the possibility of him being a part of the Cowboys at all,” Jones said, according to ESPN’s Todd Archer.

On March 5, Jerry addressed the nonsensical rumor that had Romo headed to Washington as part of a Kirk Cousins trade to the 49ers. He basically said that it’s not happening and that he and Romo have an understanding that the QB won’t play for Washington. 

“It is implied that we will work in the best way we can for the mutual interest of Tony and the Cowboys. That was just implied. That’s important here. Now we’ve got to abide by every league rule. We can’t have agreements without it being within the boundaries of the NFL. But when you’ve got a situation like we got, we’ll do the do-right rule. That’s it. Very important. We do the do-right rule. We have that kind of relationship.”

Jerry also said the Cowboys and Romo are considering several options when it comes to his future. 

“What I’m really saying is that I do not know how, what we will end up with -- whether it will be a trade, whether it will be a release, whether it will be neither. I do not know at this time. All scenarios have been well-considered and thought out. Now we’ve just got to see where the reality is.”

And finally, on Monday, March 7, Jerry addressed the situation again. Per Jon Machota of the Dallas Morning News:

(I love how Jerry said, “I don’t want to get into it” before apparently getting very into it. Classic Jerry.)

To recap: 

Jerry did not want to get into it, but he feels Romo can still win a championship; he either has or has not had trade talks about Romo, but he doesn’t want to talk about whether those talks have occurred until something happens; it is either appropriate or inappropriate to use the word “closure” when referring to Jerry’s feelings on Romo’s time with the team; and both Jerry and Romo have a high tolerance for ambiguity (I mean, obviously -- just look at the rest of this sentence leading up to this parenthetical) and know the situation could drag out well into the offseason. 

That, my friends, is one heck of an update.