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Tony Romo’s Fall Is a Reminder That the TV Booth Is No Longer a Refuge

The life of an NFL broadcaster has quickly become as competitive for roster spots as the football teams these analysts once played on.
Conor Orr|
CBS sportscaster and former NFL quarterback Tony Romo was was placed on leave by the network after being arrested for driving under the influence.
CBS sportscaster and former NFL quarterback Tony Romo was was placed on leave by the network after being arrested for driving under the influence. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Traina mailbag: Questions surround Tony Romo after he was placed on leave

Gone are the days when football broadcasting was an extension of Prom King voting. One had to be memorably athletic, mostly inoffensive and in possession of enough hair to necessitate high-end product. 

Tony Romo’s arrest for driving under the influence, which CBS announced today will trigger a leave of absence for the network’s top NFL game analyst, was certainly abhorrent, especially to the more than 11,000 people whose lives are irreversibly affected by drunk driving accidents every year. But in the realm of the country club-to-booth analyst, who roamed the landscape freely from the 1970s to the early 2000s, easily juggling an early morning tee time, a handful of gin and tonics and the most meaningless platitudes about toughness and determination you’ve ever heard, this kind of behavior would not have prompted the same reaction in 1989 or 1999 as it did now. Romo has, for the past three years, been the unfortunate changing face of what is expected out of a top color analyst on a professional football broadcast. He was paid like a franchise quarterback and is now, for all intents and purposes, being benched like one. 

Sean Payton makes a lot of wild points, but one I happened to agree with was the idea that fantasy football has generally improved the world of professional football. Like the evolution of broadcasters, we are no longer expected to arrive at draft night with a pocket full of unresearched hunches. If we are not rehearsed and even slightly misjudge the ADP range of Colston Loveland, everyone else in the room will smell blood in the water. 

That has led to us expecting more from the gatekeepers of information and access. Even Cris Collinsworth, whom I would place firmly in the former crowd—a charismatic if slightly inappropriate uncle type—was on the ground floor of Pro Football Focus. By attaching himself to a suite of tools that helped reshape the NFL as we know it, Collinsworth managed to stay relevant at the top of a competitive food chain. 

Romo placed a target on his back long before he was pulled over on a Wisconsin highway. His magic trick—predicting plays—started to wear thin and was very likely redlined by the gambling companies that pour billions of dollars into the NFL product. These companies make money by asking people to wager on whether the next play is a run or a pass. Beyond this, Romo failed to do what Tom Brady did during his sophomore season with Fox and develop a second pitch. Maybe Romo thought it was his exuberance and the kind of 50-year-old-dad-has-a-late-in-life-kid energy that he and Jim Nantz can sometimes pleasantly conjure together. However, those notes are most frequently out of tune. 

We say all of that not to criticize Romo but to paint a picture of how complicated it is to succeed now as a former player in the booth. Greg Olsen, I’d bet, has a more nuanced understanding of in-game decision-making and the different analytical schools of thought for every call than he did as a player. J.J. Watt, who will be replacing Romo, is not one of the greatest pass rushers who ever lived. However, he is, as partner Ian Eagle has noted, a standout for the volume of questions he asks and the every-moment evidence of his humility that he provides. He is, to complete the analogy, the Prom King if the Prom King also happened to win Friendliest, Smartest, Best Dressed, Most Likely to Succeed and Still Cool Enough to Rip the NFL for NFLPA Report Cards Despite Being Paid by a League Partner award. 

I don’t want to tie the perceived diminishing of Romo’s performance to an arrest for driving under the influence, and I don’t believe anyone should. I also don’t support those who wanted Romo away from their broadcast of choice cheering on a person who is, at the very least, suffering from poor decision-making skills. What I do hope former players understand is that the booth is no longer a refuge for post-career income and status. It is as large and as fragile a glass house as the one they lived in during their playing careers. It is not something that you do after football to stay tangentially attached to the sport. It is its own maniacally competitive machine that, like any other form of entertainment, is subject to the wild teenage-style vacillations in our preferences, wants and needs. 

Beyond the Prom King, we are now in search of less an analyst than the wishlist of a perpetually unmarried person whose standards rise with the viewing of every plastic Hallmark husband that enters their database. Romo was hired at a time when this was not the case and was the first high-profile analyst forced to swim into deeper waters. His fall is a reminder of how quickly that transition happened, and that those vying to replace him must understand the new parameters before applying.  

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Conor Orr
CONOR ORR

Conor Orr is a Senior Writer for Sports Illustrated with more than 15 years of experience covering the NFL. His work has been cited in Best American Sportswriting and has won a PFWAA award. Prior to Sports Illustrated, he covered both the Giants and Jets for The Star-Ledger. Conor lives in New Jersey with his amazing wife and three children.

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Traina Thoughts Mailbag: Questions Surround Tony Romo After Being Placed on Leave

CBS announced that J.J. Watt will replace the former Cowboys quarterback in the booth after his drunk-driving arrest.
Jimmy Traina|
CBS announced Friday that Tony Romo is on leave after being arrested in Wisconsin.
CBS announced Friday that Tony Romo is on leave after being arrested in Wisconsin. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

It’s time for another Traina Thoughts mailbag. Thanks, as always, for the questions.

As soon as this column was about to be published, CBS Sports released a statement about Romo.

The release is very specific in saying Romo is on leave. That means hasn’t been fired and he’s still with the company.

What’s surprising to me here is CBS announcing that J.J. Watt will join Jim Nantz in the network’s lead NFL booth. That would mean Romo is expected to miss some games. CBS’s first game of the season isn’t until Sept. 13.

Clearly, CBS isn’t pretending nothing happened and isn’t trying to make the Romo arrest story go away. Again, though, based on the statement, it would appear Romo will be back at some point in the regular season.

A couple of things to keep in mind. While Romo draws a lot of criticism on social media, CBS seems happy with his work.

A lot of people floated the theory that Romo’s arrest could give CBS a way to get out of paying him $17 million a year. Here’s the reality: $17 million is a lot of money, but it’s not outrageously high for a lead NFL analyst. If CBS put Watt in that role, he’d eventually end up making close to that salary. In addition, CBS pays the NFL $2.1 BILLION a year for broadcast rights. Romo’s $17 million is not that big of a deal to the company’s bottom line.

This is a great question because it’s based in reality. I think it’s hard for NBA and NHL analysts to stand out because those are sports for the play-by-play person to shine. There is constant action and it’s all fast. There just isn’t enough time to for an analyst to impact a broadcast.

Baseball is an interesting one because that’s the sport with the most downtime, although that has changed significantly thanks to the pitch clock.

The problem with baseball when it comes to an analyst standing out is that the sport is so localized. Fans listen to their local analysts for about 140 to 150 games a year. The only time national analysts are a factor is during the postseason. And that’s when fans want their local guys the most.

Meanwhile, NBC, which got back in the MLB business this season, doesn’t even have a national analyst. It uses random analysts every week alongside play-by-play man Jason Benetti.

The NFL isn’t a local sport. It’s a national sport. Romo, Tom Brady, Cris Collinsworth and Troy Aikman, to name a few, are with us every single week from September through January. That familiarity is important. Football is also the sport that needs an analyst to tell viewers what’s happening more than any other sport. From defensive coverage, to a quarterback calling an audible, to play calling, to substitutions, there’s just a ton for an NFL analyst to dig into.

I have repeatedly pointed out that the NFL has watered down the weekly 1 p.m. ET slate on Sundays by creating so many stand-alone windows.

However, as long as the NFL’s television rules force the New York market (where I live) to air the Jets and Giants, I can’t see myself ever dropping Sunday Ticket. If I’m fortunate enough to afford Sunday Ticket, I will have it because I just can’t imagine sitting in my house on a Sunday afternoon watching one of the most embarrassing franchises in the history of sports in the Jets while Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and others are playing at the same time. I want to watch the best teams, best matchups and best players every week.

The “back” button or “last channel” button is without a doubt one of the most underrated inventions of all time. We really don’t talk enough about the importance of the “back” button. I think the “back” button might have lost a little of its luster because most people use a second or even third screen these days.

In the era before streaming, a true sports fan simply couldn’t live without the “back” button. If we’re talking about just the world of sports viewing, I’d have the “back” button a top-five invention.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. The saga of Cody Rhodes finishing his story was the best and worst thing to happen to WWE. It was the best because it gave the company a red-hot storyline for two to three years and culminated in what might be the best WrestleMania ending of all time.

It was the worst thing to happen to the company because that storyline couldn’t be topped or replicated. Rhodes had to leave the company for several years for that story to work the way it did.

It also didn’t help WWE that John Cena’s final year as an active wrestler was a total dud with the horrible heel turn.

The WWE has one creative hole in the pocket: Cody’s heel turn. That will generate buzz. Whether the creative behind it is good or bad remains to be seen.

Instagram questions:

Can MLB survive an entire season work stoppage? – @rosswebermaine

Everyone will tell you no. The answer is yes. There are no bigger suckers in the world than sports fan. We get treated like crap by every league, team and network and we never go away. Baseball fans will rant and rave that they will never watch the sport or go to a game.

Then baseball will come back and everyone will watch and go to the games. Just like they’ve come back after every other strike and lockout across all sports. That’s what sports fans do.

What would you say is the LeBron James of candy bars? Reliable, productive, legendary. – @itsameandyp

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. It always hits right. It’s consistently great, like LeBron. Sometimes you take its greatness for granted, like LeBron. There is a perfect balance between peanut butter and chocolate, like LeBron’s game is perfectly balanced with scoring, passing and rebounding.

Would you rather Brian Cashman gets fired or a private Billy Joel concert? – @noahbenjamn

Goodbye, Cashman. I wouldn’t want a private Billy Joel concert. It would be awkward. Plus, a big part of what makes a concert fun is a good crowd. And I’ve seen Joel a bunch of times already. Cashman has been here for about a billion years and has won one World Series with his own players. It’s time to go. It’s enough.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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Tony Romo Arrested on Suspicion of Operating a Vehicle While Under the Influence

Eva Geitheim|
Tony Romo was arrested on Thursday night on suspicion of operating a vehicle while he was under the influence. | Mary Kouw/CBS via Getty Images

CBS broadcaster and former NFL quarterback Tony Romo was arrested on Thursday night in Milwaukee on suspicion of operating a vehicle while he was under the influence.

According to Nick Bohr of WISH 12 News, Romo, was stopped on Interstate 43 on Thursday night and was taken into custody for an OWI (Operating While Intoxicated) after he didn’t perform well on sobriety tests. He was later released.

As Bohr notes, a first-time OWI is typically a civil offense, not a criminal charge, and results in a fine. Romo is set to appear in court on Sept. 21.

Romo, 46, is a Wisconsin native who attended high school in Burlington. Prior to the arrest, he was in attendance and golfing at the Wisconsin Amateur Championship.

Romo, who retired from the NFL after the 2016 season, is entering his 10th year as CBS’s lead NFL analyst. Romo has been paired with play-by-play broadcaster Jim Nantz as network’s lead NFL broadcast team, calling their top game of the week each Sunday. Per Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, CBS declined to comment on Romo’s arrest.

Prior to becoming a broadcaster, Romo spent 14 years at the Cowboys’ quarterback, rising from an undrafted free agent out of Eastern Illinois to the leader of “America’s Team.” He was a four-time Pro Bowler and led the franchise to the postseason on four occasions. His pro career ultimately came to an end after he suffered an injury during the 2016 season and Dak Prescott led the team on an 8-1 start in his absence.

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EVA GEITHEIM

Eva Geitheim is an NFL writer at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in December 2024, she wrote for Newsweek, Gymnastics Now and Dodgers Nation. A Bay Area native, she has a bachelor’s in communications from UCLA. When not writing, she can be found baking or rewatching Gilmore Girls.

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