{"id":818305,"date":"2026-08-19T02:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T02:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/818305\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T02:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T02:28:09","slug":"the-rise-and-fall-of-tony-romo-what-comes-next-for-cbss-180m-nfl-analyst-us-sports-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/818305\/","title":{"rendered":"The rise and fall of Tony Romo: what comes next for CBS\u2019s $180m NFL analyst? | US sports media"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Tony Romo\u2019s arrest<\/a> last month, TMZ published a 31-minute \u201cextended cut\u201d<\/a> of the body-camera footage from the Wisconsin police officer who arrested CBS Sports\u2019 star NFL analyst on suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an uncanny watch. The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback\u2019s familiar goofy geniality collides with the gravity and stilted formality of an encounter with law enforcement. The video of a disoriented Romo struggling to answer basic questions and failing a field sobriety test, and his rictus-grinning, disheveled, head-askew mug-shot, form a glaring contrast with his smart-suited look a year earlier<\/a>: beaming as he posed in the spotlight with his play-by-play partner, Jim Nantz, at the network\u2019s preseason media preview.<\/p>\n

Romo initially told the officer he had not been drinking before saying he had had a single Corona. He has not issued a public statement on the incident since.<\/p>\n

The arrest and the attention mean that one of the best-known television personalities in American sport will start the season as a color commentator in a grey area. Romo was scheduled to be in Minnesota on 13 September to call the game between the Vikings and the Green Bay Packers on the first Sunday of the season. Instead he is on indefinite leave and former Houston Texans star JJ Watt has been promoted from CBS\u2019s second-tier crew to call the game with Nantz.<\/p>\n

Every week matters given the NFL\u2019s short season but it\u2019s unlikely that CBS will determine Romo\u2019s future before his court date on 21 September. Unusually among US states, Wisconsin typically treats a first-offense DUI as a civil rather than a criminal offense. This is an important distinction in law, and perhaps in Romo\u2019s employment contract, but less relevant in the court of public opinion.<\/p>\n

The incident is another strike against a 46-year-old broadcaster who has lately drawn scrutiny for a questionable work ethic<\/a>, according to the Athletic, as well as occasional on-air gaffes<\/a> and apparently waning skills. While Tom Brady has grown into his Fox Sports role after a wooden start, Romo\u2019s analytical talent arguably diminished<\/a> as seasons passed, rosters refreshed and his first-hand knowledge of the league\u2019s teams, players and coaches became outdated.<\/p>\n

Born in California and raised in Wisconsin, Romo spent all 13 years of his NFL career with the Cowboys and rose from relative obscurity to become one of the league\u2019s biggest names. He was a star at the NCAA second-tier Eastern Illinois University yet went unselected in the 2003 draft. Still, he signed for Dallas as a free agent. Initially a raw third-stringer, he spent three-and-a-half seasons as a back-up before seizing his chance in 2006 when the struggling veteran Drew Bledsoe squandered the starting job. Although his career never reached Hall of Fame levels, he remains the franchise\u2019s leader in career passing touchdowns, a remarkable achievement for an undrafted player from a small school.<\/p>\n

CBS hired Romo immediately after he retired in 2017. Eyebrows were elevated by the network\u2019s then-rare decision to slot an untested broadcaster into a lead position but the gamble quickly paid off. Though Romo never reached a Super Bowl and had a record of two wins and four losses in the playoffs, he turned out to be a fresh and telegenic character who delivered insights and highly accurate<\/a> in-game play predictions that drew rave reviews<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2020 CBS handed Romo a then-record 10-year, $180m contract: about $53m more than he earned during his playing career<\/a>. It was evidence of his appeal as well as the network\u2019s desire to keep him away from rivals such as ESPN. The former Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman signed a five-year, $90m contract with ESPN in 2022. But the $18m-a-year benchmark did not last long: that year<\/a> Brady, a singular figure who was still playing, agreed<\/a> to a 10-year, $375m deal to talk for Fox Sports once he retired.<\/p>\n

Tony Romo rose from an undrafted free agent to become one of the Cowboys\u2019 finest quarterbacks. Photograph: Matthew Emmons\/USA Today Sports<\/p>\n

These amounts may seem extravagant \u2013 because they are \u2013 but are comprehensible in the context of the NFL\u2019s importance to the networks and the broader sums at stake. CBS shells out $2.1bn a year to air games. Even this isn\u2019t enough for the league, which has reportedly<\/a> been seeking a 50% increase in rights payments.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone thinks they can do this job. Trust me, it\u2019s harder than it looks. A lot harder than it looks. There\u2019s 17 people screaming in your ear while you\u2019re talking,\u201d says Patrick Crakes, a media consultant who tested contenders in his former role as a Fox Sports executive. \u201cWhen Romo\u2019s at his best, he understands the game, he sees it and he can articulate it quickly and lots of times he narrows down the possibilities to two or three, he picks one and he\u2019s right a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Predicting his fate now is far from easy. Discussing the fall of Romo on 11 August, the CBS Sports president David Berson told reporters<\/a> there is \u201cno timetable\u201d to decide his future. \u201cWe had to consider the impact on our image and on our brand. That\u2019s very important to us. Whether the games, marketing, PR, social, the focus should and needs to be on our presentation and not on any other factors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Aside from issues of morality, loyalty and reputation, a ruthlessly pragmatic calculation could also enter the picture: if Watt proves a success, perhaps the network will conclude it makes sense to cut a fading Romo and potentially save $72m if the rest of his contract can be voided on the basis that the drunk-driving charge damaged the network\u2019s reputation. Another possibility is that Romo returns to air with CBS at some point this season or next, but on the \u201cB\u201d team, calling less attractive match-ups.<\/p>\n

Industry standards have undeniably evolved. Though Howard Cosell\u2019s drinking \u2013 said to occur before, after and even during broadcasts \u2013 was an open secret, the great ABC sportscaster\u2019s consumption did not preclude him from a long and storied career, nor was it widely publicized until a former ABC executive wrote a book<\/a> in 1988 that alleged Cosell threw up on his co-commentator\u2019s cowboy boots in the booth after imbibing too much vodka before a Monday Night Football broadcast in 1970. (Cosell, who left the stadium at half-time, claimed he was sick with a virus.)<\/p>\n

Will Romo\u2019s troubles dissuade networks from giving out lavish contracts in the future? Crakes doubts that executives will be rushing to offer more decade-long deals \u2013 not because of Romo\u2019s personal travails but since today\u2019s media landscape is so turbulent, making future rights deals and negotiating leverage hard to predict. CBS\u2019s parent company, Paramount Skydance, wants to acquire Warner Bros Discovery in a potential $110bn deal<\/a> that could see CBS Sports merge with TNT Sports.<\/p>\n

CBS was the most-watched<\/a> NFL broadcaster last season according to Nielsen ratings, with an average of 25.8 million viewers for its late Sunday afternoon games. Its Thanksgiving clash between the Cowboys and the Kansas City Chiefs attracted an average of 57.2 million viewers \u2013 the largest-ever<\/a> audience for an NFL regular-season contest.<\/p>\n

Such huge figures, especially remarkable at a time when traditional broadcast television is in decline, underline the value of the NFL to the legacy networks. They explain why charismatic personalities such as Romo who can elucidate a complex sport for mainstream audiences are able to command vast salaries. Constant scrutiny and high expectations are part of the bargain. \u201cYou\u2019re really carrying the brand flag for your network, for your sport and for the league and that\u2019s why those guys make so much money. There\u2019s a lot of trust that goes into that,\u201d Crakes says.<\/p>\n

If a commentator becomes divisive and derided, that\u2019s a problem. \u201cFootball in the United States is the most general market product that we have any more. It\u2019s the closest thing to going to blockbuster movies that you can find,\u201d Crakes adds. \u201cIt\u2019s the closest thing we\u2019ve got any more in the United States to talking to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Tony Romo\u2019s arrest last month, TMZ published a 31-minute \u201cextended cut\u201d of the body-camera footage from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":818306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-818305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=818305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/818305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=818305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=818305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=818305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}