Tony Romo

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo feels people are making the cheating scandal a bigger story because it involves the Patriots. (AP Photo/Brandon Wade)

The New England Patriots ought to find a way to get Dallas Cowboys star Tony Romo on their PR team.

OK, so that would be tampering, but the Pro Bowl quarterback would fit right in.

The morning after Patriots coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady denied knowing how 11 of their 12 AFC Championship Game footballs lost air last weekend, Romo stuck up for a long-time NFL powerhouse that is being accused of cheating.

"I do think that we also want to talk about them because it's the Patriots," Romo said Friday morning on ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike show. "I do think whenever you're on top for so long, if you do anything ...

"If it's the president, if it's that's even anything remotely questioned, it's going to be 10 times as big as so other guy somewhere else across the country. So it's a thing. We're going to talk about it. It's about the integrity of the game and blah, blah, blah. But I also feel like we're really going to another level because it's this team that has been so successful and they're trying to just bring 'em down as well."

The Patriots have won three Super Bowls and lost two with Brady, but they were previously caught illegally videotaping the Jets' defensive signals during a September 2007 game, which led to the organization losing a first-round draft pick and being fined 200,000, plus Belichick being fined $500,000.

Stiffer penalties could be forthcoming this time for the Patriots.

"They'll do their investigation and they'll come up with what they come up with, and we'll know what happened," Romo said.

Here's how Romo picks out his game balls:

"It really comes down to your staff that you have behind the scenes, your equipment room guys. 'I like them out there for about a quarter or a half a practice, and I'm, 'OK that's good.’ I just don't want them exposed to a rain day or a really hot day where it's 100 degrees now and people basically have sweat on them for two hours, things like that where the ball can change.

"You go through the balls and you pick out 12 for the game and you go to your equipment manager and he gives them to the ref. And from there you don't see them until 5-10 minutes before the game. And then at that point, it's up to your ball boys. Those are people that are on your team and those are the guys that you go over and see before the game. You might throw a ball or two, and that's kind of how the process goes."

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Romo did seem to suggest that he thinks Belichick is innocent.

"I do think that our head coach doesn't have anything to do with the footballs on game day," Romo said. As far as the ball situation, I don't have a great answer for it. I do think you have to question the ball boys. And it usually comes back to the quarterback."

That would be Brady.

"I haven't seen exactly what he said," Romo said. "I know the whole situation and there's a lot involved in what actually happened. To me, the discussions really go right to the people they're talking to."

Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com Philadelphia Sports on Facebook.