Fort Worth, Texas ? Just the other week, Ray Jackson walked into a gym during a youth basketball game when a youngster was whistled for calling a timeout his team didn’t have.

“He pulled a Chris Webber!” another youngster yelled.

Jackson didn’t even smile. He has heard it so many times that he’s numb to the humor, or pain. Jackson was a member of Michigan’s Fab 5 and was on the team when Chris Webber called “timeout” in the dying seconds, costing the Wolverines a chance to win the 1993 NCAA men’s basketball title.

“I still get it to this day,” said Jackson, who runs two of his own businesses in Austin, Texas.

So when Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo lost control of the hold in the playoff loss Jan. 6 in Seattle, Jackson knew what was coming.

“I figured, ‘Please don’t be too hard on Tony Romo,”‘ Jackson said. “He’ll hear about it the rest of his life.”

As with anyone who has committed a big faux pas in a big game, Romo should get used to the attention. It won’t be long before his last name will be a verb in the sports’ lexicon. Committing a Romo will be used in the same vein as someone pulling a Webber.

But few believe Romo’s gaffe will be the reason why he will or won’t have a successful run as the Cowboys’ quarterback.

“He’s young, and that makes a big difference. He has to recognize mistakes happen,” said Dr. Richard Cox, a sports psychologist who has written books on the subject. “They lost that game; was he the reason? No. He was one piece. But he was a visible piece.

“It can destroy your confidence.”

Losing confidence after big mistakes has ruined some good professional athletes.

Philadelphia Phillies reliever Mitch Williams turned to toast after serving up the World Series walkoff home run in 1993. Nick Anderson was never the same after he missed four consecutive free throws for the Orlando Magic in the final seconds of a Game 1 NBA Finals loss against the Houston Rockets in 1995. Indianapolis kicker Mike Vanderjagt missed a tying field goal in the final seconds of last year’s AFC Divisional Playoffs and never rebounded with the Cowboys this season.

And Bill Buckner’s infamous booted grounder in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series turned him into the portrait of the human goat.

But unlike those four, Romo probably never will have to return to the role where he committed his mistake again. Buckner had to field grounders at first base in Boston, where he immediately became a leper. Anderson had to return to a foul line. Williams had to try to close another game. Vanderjagt had to try to kick field goals.

It’s doubtful that Romo will ever return to his job as the holder. He wanted to junk that job after he became the starter. Seldom are starting quarterbacks holders, mostly because they don’t have any time to practice with the kicker.

For those who know Romo well, they insist his blunder is not something he will forget. But they insist he will move on.

“I don’t think he’ll get over it, but I think he will overcome it,” said Romo’s friend and high school basketball coach of three years, Steve Brezowitz. “If this was just about him, it would be different. But when he’s done something that he thinks lets people down, he won’t forget it.”

It wasn’t long after Webber pleaded for that timeout that he poked fun at it. He named his own charity the “Timeout Foundation.”

Webber will forever be linked with that “timeout,” but it didn’t define him. He became an NBA All-Star and a dominant power forward.

“This won’t define Tony,” Brezowitz said of Romo.

Will it follow him?

“Forever,” Jackson said.

Such a blunder has flown like a gnat around former Edmonton Oilers defenseman Steve Smith. In the third period of Game 7 of a 1986 playoff series against the Flames, his pass from behind his own net deflected off goalie Grant Fuhr and into his own goal for the decisive score.

“He was absolutely devastated,” said Stars goalie coach Andy Moog, who played for the Oilers that season.

When the Oilers won the Stanley Cup the next season, captain Wayne Gretzky immediately handed the Cup to Smith so he could be the first to take it around the rink.

“I remember the relief part. You could really sense that,” Moog said. “To be honest, he was young, cocky and arrogant, and, when he made that mistake, it had to be the most humbling thing that ever happened to him.

“He was young, and this sort of adversity helps mature and focus a person.”

Smith went on to enjoy a long career complete with three Stanley Cups and an All-Star game appearance. By the time he retired in 2000, the own-goal was a part of his resume. Not his legacy.

And the bobbled hold will become part of sports lore, sure to be replayed again and again when some other unlucky soul takes a turn in the humility tank. “He can’t let this linger,” Jackson said. “But it will all be fun and jokes from here on out.”

Big blunders

A look at five athletes whose careers were derailed after big blunders and five athletes who prospered despite their blunders:

Never Recovered

Nick Anderson

Guard

Orlando Magic

Missed four consecutive free throws near the end of regulation in Game 1 of the 1995 NBA Finals. His misses allowed the Rockets to steal the game. Anderson developed a fear of free-throw shooting and never was the same player.

Mitch Williams

Pitcher

Philadelphia Phillies

Allowed a three-run, walk-off home run to Joe Carter in Game 6 to lose the game, 8-6, and the 1993 World Series in Toronto. Williams pitched poorly for three teams in three seasons after that.

Bill Buckner

First baseman

Boston Red Sox

Allowed a grounder to roll under his glove and through his legs, letting the New York Mets score the winning run in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. The Mets also won Game 7.

Donnie Moore

Pitcher

California Angels

Allowed Dave Henderson’s game-tying homer in the ninth inning and winning sacrifice fly in the 11th inning of Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS. Boston won the series in seven games. Moore played only two more years, battled alcohol abuse and personal problems and committed suicide in 1989.

Mike Vanderjagt

Kicker

Indianapolis Colts

The most accurate kicker in NFL history missed a 46-yard field-goal attempt to tie the score in the final seconds of last season’s AFC divisional playoff loss to the Steelers.

Signed by the Cowboys in the off-season, Vanderjagt struggled this season while making 13 of 18 field goals and was cut in November.

Prospered

Chris Webber

Forward

University of Michigan

Called a timeout with 11 seconds left in the 1993 NCAA title game when the Wolverines had none. North Carolina’s two technical foul shots cost Michigan a chance at winning. The 1993 No. 1 overall pick, he’s a five-time NBA All-Star and reached the 2002 West finals.

Steve Smith

Defenseman

Edmonton Oilers

Sent the puck off his own goalie and into the net for the decisive goal on an errant pass in the third period of Game 7 of the 1986 Divisional Finals against Calgary. He won three Stanley Cups, made the 1991 All-Star Game and retired in December 2000.

Derek Harper

Guard

Mavericks

Dribbled out the clock with a tie score when he thought Dallas was leading the L.A.. Lakers in Game 4 of the 1984 West semis.

The Mavs lost the game in OT and the series in Game 5. Harper hit a big shot against the Lakers in the 1986 playoffs and played until 1999.

Leon Lett

Defensive tackle

Cowboys

Fumbled while trying to recover a blocked Miami field-goal attempt on an icy Thanksgiving Day in 1993, and the Dolphins recovered. They made their second field-goal try, winning on the final play of the game. He remained an effective defender, earning two Pro Bowl invitations before he retired after the 2001 season.

Jim Marshall

Defensive end

Minnesota Vikings

Collected a fumble and ran 66 yards, the wrong way, into the San Francisco 49ers end zone in a 1964 game.

Then, he threw the ball out of the end zone for a safety. No big deal. The Vikings won the game, and Marshall went to two Pro Bowls and played through 1979, starting 270 consecutive games.