Big money ahead<br/><span class='hl2'>Jones will have to pay up after QB's hot start</span>

Tony Romo is making $1.5 million this season. The Dallas Cowboy quarterback is about to make more. A lot more.

Romo's hot start with the Cowboys — 11 touchdown passes, three interceptions — has answered all questions about whether he is Dallas' quarterback of the future. Jerry Jones took a wait-and-see attitude on a new contract for Romo, but Jones sees what we all see.

Sports Illustrated's Peter King guesses that Romo will sign a contract for between $7 million and $10 million, and that Jones will pull the trigger in October, to get under the Nov. 5 deadline for the money to go against the 2007 payroll cap. The Cowboys are in good shape, cap-wise, so that shouldn't prevent an agreement soon.

Jones' plan was sound. The way Romo ended last season — inconsistent, as compared to his blazing start — called for prudence. But Romo is playing sensationally, and he's a marketing dream. Jones will have to ante up.

So the undrafted free agent from Eastern Illinois, now in his fifth NFL year but less than 12 months into actually playing, is about to cash in big.

Romo says it's no big deal: "I don't know what you'd do with more than $2-3 million a year anyway. My friends making $40,000 a year can't comprehend that kind of money.”

Flanker Terrell Owens, who has been on the receiving end of many of Romo's big throws, said he was glad to be of service to Romo's financial bonanza.

Said Owens, "Maybe he can take me out to dinner.”