Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is going through a rough patch currently, as he parted ways with CBS after getting arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Yet, nothing beats the pain he received back in 2007, in his fifth year with the Cowboys. But he had the back of fellow teammate, wide receiver Terrell Owens.

“Even to this day that is one of the hardest losses of my career,” said Romo in Owens’ Prime Video documentary, Terrell & T.O, about the 2007 Divisional Round defeat, as quoted by SB Nation reporter RJ Ochoa. “He felt for me. He saw what I was going through. He’s literally trying to be almost like a parent. ‘You don’t mess with him. That’s my guy. If you mess with him you mess with me.’ And I just think that is rare. You don’t see that very often. TO has a special place in my heart because of that. Forever.”

The Cowboys have gone to the divisional round 28 times in their career. Yet for Romo, who is widely celebrated as one of the greatest undrafted players in Cowboys history, the 2007 run still stings in his heart. With a 13-3 record, they claimed the NFC’s No. 1 seed that year but saw their season end with a 21-17 defeat at home against the New York Giants. The Giants were the fifth seed that season.

The 2007 season marked the peak of talent during Romo’s tenure as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback. Dallas sent 13 players to the Pro Bowl, including Flozell Adams, Leonard Davis, Nick Folk, and Owens, among others.

Yet the fact that they stumbled during the divisional round after a first-round bye is what put the players on the hot seat. Out of them all, Romo and Jason Witten caught most of the heat for taking a bye-weekend trip to Mexico.

“We all saw this one coming. The Cowboys raced out to a 12-1 record in 2007, then declared “mission accomplished” and sleepwalked through a few ugly late-season losses. Tony Romo and some teammates then spent their playoff bye weekend in Cabo, Mexico, just in case you weren’t 100 percent certain that they thought they already won the Super Bowl,” wrote author Mike Tanier back then. “The Cowboys actually held 14-7 and 17-14 leads in the playoff game, but after Brandon Jacobs scored a 1-yard touchdown near the start of the fourth quarter, the Cowboys’ offense collapsed in a heap of ugly sacks and sloppy penalties.

“Lesson learned: Cabo is a great place for players to visit in early February, not early January.”

New York’s pass rush continued with their momentum, dominating Dallas, replicating the pressure that had troubled New England in the Super Bowl. While the Cowboys failed as a team, Romo was getting called out. That’s when Owens stepped up to defend the quarterback.

“It’s not about Tony. You guys can point the finger at him, you can talk about the vacation, and if you do that, it’s really unfair, it’s really unfair,” Owens started crying during the presser. “It’s my team, it’s my quarterback, and if you guys do that, man, it’s unfair. We lost as a team, we lost as a team, man.”

Years later, Owens is still one of the strongest supporters of Romo. In October, CBS Sports announced that the sports broadcasting channel and Romo had “mutually agreed to part ways.” After that, there has been a rumor that the Cowboys might call Romo again for a front office role.

“Troy Aikman and Tony Romo need to be part of the Cowboys organisation,” wrote Dez Bryant, the former Dallas wide receiver on X.

But until now, nothing has taken shape.

In May of last year, it was reported that Amazon Prime had tapped NFL Films to produce its feature-length documentary on Owens, who would be among those interviewed for the project.

The film brings together Owens, his loved ones, and several notable NFL figures with whom he crossed paths. Other than Romo, there are former San Francisco 49ers players including Steve Young, Jerry Rice, and Jeff Garcia.