Every great quarterback has a story about how things could have turned out differently. Tony Romo’s might be the best example. The undrafted kid from Eastern Illinois became a Cowboys franchise quarterback, and Hall of Fame coach Bill Parcells knows exactly who deserves the credit.

Parcells, who was in his first season coaching Dallas when Romo arrived in 2003, laid it out on The 33rd Team’s Football Doesn’t Lie podcast when co-host Catherine Zadzora asked how a coach knows when an overlooked player is ready, and Parcells went straight to Romo and then assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach Sean Payton.

“In Tony’s case, he was a young free agent from Eastern Illinois, and I credit Sean Payton more than myself for kind of finding him and digging up information and saying, ‘Hey Bill, this is a guy maybe we ought to consider as a free agent.’ And so we wound up doing it; we wound up signing him. We didn’t throw him to the wolves,” Parcells said on the podcast.

Parcells also explained how a draft board works. Teams scout upwards of 250 players a year, but only about half of them land on the board. Everyone on it needs a defined role and a real shot at making the team. Romo did not fit that mold on paper. He came from a smaller school and had not played at the highest level of competition.

Romo had already made his mark at Eastern Illinois, winning the Walter Payton Award in December 2002 as the top player in Division I-AA. He became the first player in Eastern Illinois and Ohio Valley Conference history to win it.

So what kept that college success from translating into a draft pick?

Payton later revealed that Dallas had given Romo a fifth-round grade and discussed taking him in the sixth or seventh round, only to select other players instead. Romo went undrafted.

“You know, the neighbors are over, the cheese dip’s gone stale, the neighbors have all gone home. But we really wanted him as a free agent.”

Once the Cowboys signed him, the qualities that had caught the coaches’ attention began to show. Parcells recalled that Romo was smart, had a good arm and release, and could move. He needed time to develop.

Payton still had to close the deal. According to Parcells’ 2015 biography, Payton convinced Romo to take a $15,000 signing bonus even though a $25,000 offer was on the table elsewhere.

Others in the building saw it the same way. Stephen Jones, the Cowboys vice president, was blunt about who found Romo.

“If you really want to know who found Tony, it was Sean.”

Romo eventually took over for Drew Bledsoe in 2006, and the rest is Cowboys history. He finished his career with 34,183 passing yards, 248 touchdowns, and four Pro Bowl selections, retiring as Dallas’ all-time leader in career passing yards and passing touchdowns categories.

A year later, the Cowboys went 13-3 and won the NFC East with Romo leading the offense. Parcells has always been protective of how Romo was brought along. He has said veteran Vinny Testaverde, who arrived in 2004, helped by showing Romo how a pro prepares.

“I really believe I handled him the right way when he was young,” Parcells said at the time. “If I had thrown him in there, it would have been tough. He was indiscriminant.”

Still, the credit keeps pointing back to one assistant. Parcells will not take it. Payton made the phone call, fought over a $10,000 bonus, and Cowboys fans got more than a decade of Romo out of it.