Tony Romo has been playing football a long time. Before being usurped by Dak Prescott last season, he was the Cowboys’ starting quarterback for 10 years. Prior to that, he spent three seasons as a backup, four more at Eastern Illinois, four at Burlington High School in Wisconsin, and presumably several years before that playing youth football. 

So he has a lot of knowledge to share. But that knowledge isn’t just used for the benefit of his teammates. It also gets passed onto his sons. 

Romo joined Instagram earlier this week and posted a video of himself teaching Hawkins (4) and Rivers (2) how to play quarterback and wide receiver, respectively. It was pretty freaking adorable ... right up until the point that Hawkins threw the ball too hard for Rivers to catch and poor Rivers got hit in the belly, forcing Coach Romo to turn back into Comforting Dad Tony. 

It should be noted that Hawkins is using his dad’s standard “White-80, White-80” cadence before the snap of the ball, but that he also forgot what to say after Rivers identified himself as “the wide receiver!” and had to be reminded by his coach. He also pats the ball a few too many times before letting loose with his throw. That lack of recall is going to be held against him when discussing his draft prospects, and defenders will capitalize if he takes that long to actually release the football, but luckily he has 18 or so more years to hammer that out. 

As for Rivers, well, he clearly thought the play call was a quick screen. There must have been some miscommunication in the huddle. Luckily, Hawkins had the Cowboys’ offensive line protecting him and had a ton of time to throw, which meant Rivers had a chance to run his deep comeback route. He did a great job coming back to the ball and shielding off the (non-existent) defender with his body, but then the ball went right through his hands. The throw was a bit low, and Rivers is only 2 years old, but a professional wide receiver makes that play. 

It was after the drop that we discovered that not only is Tony the dad/coach of this team, but he’s also the trainer, as Rivers approaches him to take care of that belly injury. Impressively, Romo was able to deal with the injury at the same time as he delivered some coaching advice to his quarterback, noting that Hawkins should hit the receiver in the chest with the pass, and not the belly. 

All in all, a solid day of football for the Romo family, assuming Rivers was able to shake it off and get back on the field.