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THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2007
Tony Gutierrez/ASSOCIATED PRESS
ballas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo will take on the Denver Broncos in a preseason game Saturday. Romo could have signed with the Broncos as a rookie, but turned them down.
Tony Romo happy to play for Cowboys
BY STEPHEN HAWKINS ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
IRVING, Texas — Long before Tony Romo was a Pro Bowl quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, he was a rookie free agent who turned down twice as much money to sign with Denver.
Not even Broncos coach and fellow Eastern Illinois product Mike Shanahan could persuade Romo to go to Denver instead of Dallas in 2003.
"I tried to sign him very hard. I really liked him coming out of school," Shanahan said Wednesday. "We offered him $20,000 and (the Cowboys) offered him $10,000. To show you my recruiting ability (they) beat me. ... That really disappointed me at that time."
"He said, 'Coach, I thought I had a much better chance to make the team here than at your place,' Shanahan said.
Shanahan finally had the chance "not too long ago" to ask Romo why he went to Dallas.
At the time Shanahan was trying to get Romo, the Broncos had just
signed free agent Jake Plummer to a $40 million, seven-year deal and had Danny Kanell and Steve Beuerlein as the backup quarterbacks. The Cowboys had Quincy Carter and Chad Hutchinson.
Had Shanahan been able to persuade him four years ago, Romo might be starting for Denver now.
"It's never been about money," Romo said. "It's just about playing the game and having fun doing it. This was just a good situation. Denver was, too. It really came down to Denver and Dallas. I think I made the right choice for right now."
After two practices Wednesday in the sweltering heat, Denver and Dallas will work together in two more sessions Thursday. They then play a preseason game Saturday night at Texas Stadium.
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"I try not to look back and say coulda, shoulda and woulda," Romo said. "There are times I thought in the four years before I started playing that if I had gone somewhere else, I maybe could have been on the field sooner. I think everything happens for a reason."
Hunt family increases its contribution to Arrowhead Stadium's $375 million face-lift
BY DOUG TUCKFR ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSASCITY.Mo. — Arrowhead Stadium, with the family of the late Lamar Hunt kicking in an extra $50 million, is going to get a $375 million facelift.
Altogether, the 35-year-old home of the Kansas City Chiefs will expand by approximately 500,000 square feet. There will
be a roughly 50 percent increase in concessions and an 80 percent increase in bathroom facilities. Concourse width will double. There will be a Chiefs Hall of Fame open 365 days a year and an innovative "horizon level" where fans can watch the game in an outdoor setting from up high.
"Arrowhead as a facility has been the blueprint for NFL stadiums since it opened," Dennis Wellner, a founding senior principal at HOK Sports said Wednesday at a news conference.
"The question is, how do you improve it? I believe you respect the icon, which is Arrowhead, and you look to the future. Goals for the project are to increase provisions for fans at all levels of the building and match what's been provided in the newest stadiums in the NFL at a cost of half what a new facility
Construction will take about three years and include a new training facility with a 100-yard indoor field and a separate building to house coaches and front office executives.
would cost."
Voters in Jackson County, many fearful of losing the Royals and Chiefs, passed a three-eighths of a cent sales tax 15 months ago to fund the ambitions renovation at Arrowhead and its sister facility at
the Truman Sports Complex, baseball's Kauffman Stadium.
As part of the deal, the David Glass family, owners of the Kansas City Royals, agreed to contribute $25 million toward improvements at Kauffman. The Hunt family, sole owners of the Chiefs, originally committed $75 million of their own funds. But on Wednesday, Clark Hunt, chairman of the board of the Chiefs and son of the team's late
founder, announced the family was putting in an additional $50 million, for a total contribution of $125 million.
Hunt said the family made the decision to increase the commitment about two months ago.
"We just decided it was in the best long-range interest of the Chiefs and the Jackson County taxpayers to make the commitment," said Hunt, 42.
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