Dan Bailey Also Requested Redemption Song

We live in a quarterback-centric world and there's absolutely no chance that's ever going to change.

That means Tony Romo's trip from goat to injured to victorious is going to be the dominant story line to come out of Sunday's win. That's fine because it is a good story and because it balances things out after it looked like Romo might be burned at the stake like a 19th century witch last week. It isn't the only story, though, and it isn't even the biggest redemption story that the Cowboys had to offer on Sunday.

Seriously. Here's a submission that Dan Bailey hitting the game-tying and game-winning field goals represented a much bigger change of fortunes than anything Romo did on Sunday.

How's that possible? Romo was going to be the Cowboys' quarterback in Week Three, Week Four and the rest of the forseeable future even if Sunday's comeback wound up falling short of victory. The injury might have forced him out of the lineup, but the Romo era wasn't over if there wasn't a happy ending.

The Bailey era, on the other hand, certainly would have ended if Bailey missed from 48 yards with overtime hanging in the balance. There were questions about his fitness for the NFL before the game with the 49ers started and they were pretty close to turning into conclusions when Bailey pushed a 21-yard chip shot wide right in the first quarter. If it were possible to cut a player and replace him in the middle of a game, Bailey's Cowboys career might have ended right there.

You can't do that, of course, so Bailey got another chance and he struck a kick as true as you could hope to see. And then he did it again from 19 yards out to win the game and earn a moment that seemed impossible when he missed that field goal early in the game.

It isn't every day that you get to tie a game, win a game and keep your job in the span of about 20 minutes. Bailey's redemption will have a very short shelf life, such is life when you're a kicker, but he's got a lot more rope today than he has had at any other point in his short professional career.