"Jason Witten asked we not make him out to be "a tough guy." We won't.

He had a sore foot. He played on it on Thursday. Football players do these things all of the time.

That's not a tough-guy story. But there is one about Witten, and we have to go back a few years. We have to go back to when Bill Parcells thought he needed to test his rookie.

Looking back, knowing what we know now, was the test necessary?

There are other tests for the current Cowboys. December is one. The month seems to bring out their worst.

But all they could do Thursday was end November the best they could, and that's where Witten came in. He'd pulled up lame in the second quarter on Sunday against the Redskins, and it appeared unlikely he'd be able to play just five days later.

So when he hobbled for more receiving yards than he'd had in a full year?

"You can't talk about him enough, in my opinion," said Tony Romo. "He's about as good a teammate as I've been around."

Romo has been around Witten as long as anyone. They came to Dallas together in 2003 in what was a time of change. Parcells had arrived, and the last link to the Super Bowl teams, Darren Woodson, would play his last down that season.

No one expected much from Romo, an undrafted free agent, but Witten was a prospect. With the size and soft hands of a basketball player, he was a third-round steal."