Very Nice David Lee Article

lbmclean_sj · Jan 7, 2008

from espn's Mark Mosely

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/hashmarks/0-3-968/Romo-s-Best-Kept-Secret.html

Sorry. This entry will not shed light on Tony Romo's alleged Thanksgiving getaway with Jessica Simpson to, of all places, Waco, Texas.

Did Tony call for directions to the Cameron Park Zoo? You bet he did, but today we're focusing on Packers-Cowboys.

And with that in mind, I just had a nice visit with an unassuming man who's had a lot to do with Romo's success. Unless you follow the cult that is Arkansas Razorbacks football, you probably haven't heard of David Lee.

He served as Houston Nutt's offensive coordinator in Fayetteville, and now he's following Nutt to Ole Miss. In 2003, though, Lee joined his old Vanderbilt coach, Bill Parcells, in Dallas, where he served as an offensive assistant.

Lee, who sent at least five quarterbacks to the pros during his college coaching career, said he had Romo ranked at the top of the fifth round in the 2003 draft. When Romo went undrafted, Lee overheard a discussion about whether the Cowboys were going to spend $15,000 to sign the Eastern Illinois quarterback as a free agent.

"I think we can get him for 10," he recalls Sean Payton saying.

After Romo's first rookie minicamp, Lee rushed over to tell Bill Parcells how much potential he had.

"Why don't you let me take you to a game first," Parcells snarled. "With that delivery, he'll have six out of every 70 passes batted down."

Romo wanted to know what Lee and Payton thought of his first minicamp. Lee told him they were both impressed.

"But what did Parcells say?" Romo said.

Lee said his inability to lie hurt his chances of putting on a strong front. After a few awkward pauses, he told Romo that Parcells didn't think his sidearm passes would work in the NFL.

"Tony said he wanted to change his motion immediately," Lee said. "I told him to worry about making the team first, and then we'd change his delivery. He had this extremely quick release, but it was coming out side-armed."

After some prodding, Romo talked Lee into making the change. He called Lee at 10 p.m., and the two would meet at Valley Ranch. In order to change his delivery from sidearm to three-quarters, Lee used an adjustable net that went as high as 10 feet. The net forced Romo to get more on top of the ball, and when he showed up for his first training camp, he had a completely different motion.

"He probably threw 5,000 to 7,000 balls that offseason," Lee said. "My wife was still living in Arkansas at the time, so I had a little time on my hands."

Lee also said he had to coach some of the Brett Favre out of Romo. He told him that Favre was the only quarterback in the league who could get away with making throws off his back foot, and that Romo should stop trying to emulate him so much.

Now, I still think Payton, Parcells and Chris Palmer all played important roles in Romo's rise, but Lee deserves a lot more credit than he's received. In fact, when Arkansas pulled off that 50-48 upset over LSU on Friday, guess who was the first person to call Lee?

You guessed it. Tony Romo.
Click to expand...

CA Dolfan · Jan 7, 2008

Cool article.

Sam · Jan 8, 2008

May be I'm reading too much into it, but it sounds like good news for John Beck. Imo, Bill saw enough of John to get a qb coach to change that low release point he has.

dolpns13 · Jan 8, 2008

Sam said:

May be I'm reading too much into it, but it sounds like good news for John Beck. Imo, Bill saw enough of John to get a qb coach to change that low release point he has.
Click to expand...

Beck has a pretty nice release, but he def likes throwing off his back foot too

sleek · Jan 8, 2008

Nice article. Glad to have Lee aboard.

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