Tate Romney Balancing Fatherhood and Football in First Year as a Cowboy

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STILLWATER — Tate Romney is used to playing defense, and recently, he and his wife, Taylor, have switched from running zone to playing man-to-man after their birth of their second child.

“In the afternoons when I get home, I’m really with our son, playing with him outside or upstairs or something and trying to tire him out so he goes to bed,” Romney said.

The couple welcomed their second child, a daughter, on Sept. 21.

As a father of two, Romney is at a different spot in his life than most college football players.

“It’s definitely a lot right now,” Romney said. “It’s very demanding, but it’s very joyful. I think it’ll be really good memories to look back on, as well. Just having my son and my daughter now at the games, my wife likes to make videos about it and everything. Those are really fun to watch and look at.

“Me and my wife, we always planned we wanted to have kids pretty early. We want to have a few kids, so it’s a lot of joy for us.”

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A 6-foot-1, 223-pound linebacker, Romney is having success in his first season as a Cowboy.

He’s made 43 tackles this season, trailing only fellow linebacker Ethan Wesloski among Cowboys. Romney leads his team with five tackles for loss, and his 1.5 sacks ties him with defensive ends Jaleel Johnson and Malik Charles for OSU’s team lead.

It’s already a career-high in terms of tackles for loss and sacks in a season for Romney, and he’s just nine tackles away from tying his career-high there after making 52 at Arizona State in 2023.

Out of Chandler, Arizona, Romney went on a two-year LDS mission between Bahia Blanca, Argentina and San Antonio, Texas after high school before joining the BYU football team ahead of the 2022 season. He then spent the past three years with the Sun Devils.

Romney has hit double-digit tackles in both of his Big 12 games as a Cowboy, taking down a dozen ball carriers against West Virginia before making 14 stops this past weekend against UCF.

“When I was transferring here and everything, I saw that there was three linebackers last year on North Texas’ defense that had over 100 tackles,” Romney said. “So, that was something that. Obviously that’s a fun thing to do is make tackles. But at the end of the day, it’s really just about winning. The stats, the tackles don’t matter as much as the win does.”

The Cowboys have done some winning to go with Romney’s tackles.

The Cowboys have a massive game this weekend against No. 20 Houston.

It’s still relatively early in the season, but should the Cowboys win in Houston, they’d be in the driver’s seat to make it to the Big 12 title game in Arlington. But aside from perhaps Oregon, this looks to be the most talented opponent the Cowboys have faced this season, so it’ll be important for Romney and Co. to slow down a good Houston offense led by a solid quarterback on Conner Weigman.

“They’re just a solid offense,” Romney said. “They have a lot of good players, obviously a good quarterback, a dual-threat quarterback in some ways. Good receiving tight end, and they run the ball really well. I think that’s the best thing.”