Machismo trumps safety in NFL culture The Circus Maximus known as the NFL alighted in London for a game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The league's many fascinations will be on display: its wonderful athleticism, its stupendous television ratings and its blithe disregard for the safety of its most valuable commodities, the players. Nearly two weeks ago, a 6-foot-3, 240-pound Redskins linebacker sprinted, spun and drove his knee into the back of Tony Romo, the Cowboys quarterback. That hit caused Romo's back muscles to yank apart so hard that pieces of two vertebrae chipped and fractured in his lower back. That injury, most typically seen in auto or airplane accidents, did not threaten the stability of Romo's spine. It did result in intense pain. And it takes six to eight weeks to begin to heal. "I've had patients on the floor with this," said the orthopedist John Bendo, a clinical professor at the New York University Langone Hospital for Joint Disease. Two weeks later? Romo's still in a lot of pain. A lot. It's acute. Romo sat out one game. Then the Cowboys loaded him onto an airplane and flew him to London. Given the culture of the NFL, which grooves on manliness, Romo is an odds-on bet to trot out onto the field this Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are 1-8. Romo, doctors say, most likely will be wrapped in a corset pulled so tight as to draw a gasp from a Victorian dowager. As he no doubt has gobbled painkillers this week, doctors in the Cowboys" employ will probably give him a splendid chaser in the form of a cortisone shot. Playing is the expectation laid down by Jerry Jones, the Cowboys owner. He is a self-consciously swaggering billionaire oil-and-gas fellow with a documented affection for young strippers. "He's going on the trip to London," Jones told the NFL Network as he strolled through the hallways of his preposterous spaceship of a stadium near Dallas, "and logic tells you that we wouldn't have him make that trip to London and back if we didn't think he was going to play." Jones has kept up his tough Texan routine all week. A year ago, Jones gave Romo a $108-million (U.S.) contract - typically of the NFL, little more than half of that money is guaranteed - and he expects his player to run hard for the green. Jones speaks with the sublime assurance of a man who just might have no idea what he was saying. Last December, Romo took a frightful hit and limped through the game. The next week, the Cowboys faced a top rival. "Pain won't stop him," Jones told reporters, who dutifully printed his forecast. Three days later, Romo underwent surgery for a herniated disk. Romo is a terrific fourth-quarter quarterback, a warrior in the beloved military argot of the NFL. He has played with torn ligaments and broken bones and come back early from many injuries. He walked out stiffly to meet the press Thursday morning. "I mean, it's sore," he said. It's not a comfortable feeling. Then he added, "Just normal stuff." He was lying. I called Dr. Frederick Azar, an orthopedic surgeon who is the team physician for the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA and president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. "Romo's still in the inflammatory stage; it takes three to four weeks just to calm the nerves and muscles down," Azar said. If he thinks he can go, okay, but he's going to be in a lot of pain. NFL myth-making aside, pain holds danger for a football player. It clouds his brain and slows his reactions. He recoils when he should cut away from a pursuing behemoth. "If he makes a move, and hesitates even for a millisecond or two, he risks a much worse injury," said Dr. Alfred O. Bonati, a well-known spinal surgeon. He's trying to play with a very painful injury. Critics of the multibillion-dollar NFL industry have for good reason focused intently on the dangers posed by concussions, which can leave athletes befuddled at 45 and drifting into a cloud of dementia at 65. Losing a mind and a personality is terrifying. But nearly as remarkable is the workaday way in which the league encourages players to cripple themselves on the road to eventual retirement. Manliness becomes an unforgiving trap. "I'm aware of his back; God only knows what is in store for his back," Jones said of Romo this week. I've seen backs out there that you wouldn't believe how they look on MRIs and how they look on X-rays. Those never impacted careers at all. On and on Jones babbled. And no one in the NFL possessed the common sense to say: Be quiet.