IRVING, Texas -- Growing up, Tony Romo never had the opportunity to meet some of his favorite athletes. With his partnership with Fanwish, the Dallas Cowboys quarterback hopes to change that for people wanting to meet him and other professional athletes.
That's part of the reason why Romo is involved with the National Fantasy Football Convention as well as Fanwish.
"One of the things I'm stressing is the ability to interact with people you watch on TV, the people that you have a chance to root for," Romo said. "I just know how I was when I was young and some of my friends and family, and I feel like some of the ventures you can tell I'm doing are getting to bringing the fans closer to the player and to the people that they root for. I think there's something to that. ...It's a neat thing when everybody gets to say hi and talk to them. It's not that hard to spend an hour or two here and there every once and a while. I think the more times you connect to people, it's good for everybody."
Fanwish is a free mobile application that allows fans to win VIP experiences either through drawings or buying packages outright. Fanwish has partnerships with the Cowboys, Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars but will expand to other markets throughout the country and globe not just in sports but also in music and entertainment.
The company held a kickoff party Tuesday night at Nick & Sam's in Dallas in which Romo was joined by teammates Jason Witten, Tyron Smith, DeMarcus Lawrence and J.J. Wilcox. Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin was also in attendance. Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson and coach Rick Carlisle were also in attendance.
Some of the packages include meet-and-greets with players after games in a suite at AT&T Stadium or spending a day with Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones. There were sweepstakes winners at the event Tuesday night and they were able to meet players, have pictures taken and receive autographs.
"The premise of what we're doing is we want to give back to the fans, along with our partners, which are the teams and the athletes, the opportunity to do something they wouldn't otherwise be able to do or afford that is usually reserved for the very wealthy or connected," Fanwish chairman Rob Wechsler said.