The Press Box - Tony Romo Changed Sports Television. Now He’s out of a Job.

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

Today on an emergency edition of the podcast, Bryan and Joel react to the news that Tony Romo is officially out at CBS. They give their instant reactions to the news, discuss Romo's history and legacy at CBS, and wrap up with a discussion of the shuffle at the top to be a network's no. 1 NFL color analyst. Hosts: Bryan Curtis and Joel Anderson Producers: Isaiah Blakely, Jon Jones, and Donald LoBianco Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, media consumers. Welcome to a special edition of the press box, an emergency edition of the press box, if you will. It's Brian Curtis, along with Joel Anderson, and we are here today to welcome Tony Romo to the Ringer Podcast Network. Well, can he, can he, do you think he could, I bet Bill would love to give him a podcast.

We have nothing to report. Okay. Though Cousin Sal does have his numbers, so. Is this, would this consider this an open invitation then to, to reach out. We don't get paid enough to make those kind of decisions. We know that.

Well, if he wants to come on the show, then, how about that? That's an opening invitation. Our Friday news dump today is that Tony Romo is out at CBS. It is the old mutual parting of ways, Joel. I bet.

Seemed inevitable. The statement says CBS Sports and Tony Romo have mutually agreed to part ways. We thank Tony for his contributions over the past nine years, nine years. And wish him the best moving forward

CBS also says J.J. Watt will continue to partner with Jim Nance and Tracy Wolfson on our lead NFL announced team for the rest of the season. Your first reactions to the ouster of Tony Romo. I'm surprised that people

lose their job over what he's losing his job for in this society. I mean, that's my first reaction. I was like, it clearly seemed like like it was going in this way. We both talked about it didn't seem likely that they were going to bring him back.

Like, they had already moved on to JJ White. How do you demote him and bring back Tony? And, you know, it didn't seem like they were supportive, right? Like, it just seemed like Tony Romo was on his own handling whatever, you know, was demanded of him in this circumstance and that CBS had moved on. So I'm not surprised, but the surprise to me is just how Puritan it is to fire somebody for DUI or DWI in today's society. But, you know, that's, maybe, maybe I'm wrong about what the standards are for everybody else other than people that work in politics now.

What about you? So go back to that O-W-I, as it's officially called in Wisconsin. Operating while... Operated while intoxicated. Okay. Not O-V-W-I? It's called O-W-I. Okay.

That was on July 23rd. Yeah. And Romo later pleaded no contest to that charge. To me, what really got Tony Romo was... was not the charge, it was the video. Yeah. You did say that. I remember when this happened,

you're like the video was going to leave an impression, right? I think there's two things that are the reason that he is leaving CBS today. One is the video, which again, those body camera videos are meant to protect people that are stopped by the police. They're also meant to protect the police in case somebody charges them with something that they, in fact, did not do. But what was the result of that in this case? it was just incredibly embarrassing. And there was just this video that got tweeted over and over again and memed into oblivion of Tony Romo.

And again, not to excuse Tony Romo for anything. Of course. None of that. Of course. I'm just saying, I think that hits very, very differently than a mugshot of Tony Romo smiling sheepishly at the camera. Do you think people are still talking about, I haven't seen that video, and maybe it's because I'm not on the racism app anymore.

The racism app is what I call Twitter. So I'm not on that app anymore. I haven't seen that video, though. I haven't seen it memed anymore. I thought kind of like with everything else that something happens, the news cycle moves on. Maybe your bosses don't forget. Maybe people within your circle don't forget. But it seemed like everybody had moved on, I thought.

I think they don't forget at a conservative network like CBS. That doesn't like drama. To your other point, it did seem like this. was a fait accompli. Yeah. From the very first edition of the NFL today on CBS, when James Brown was standing there at the set in Minneapolis with Jim Nance and Tony's replacement, J.J. Watt, and J.J. Watt, those names just roll off the tongue.

J.B. is not someone who goes rogue. Right. Like, that just felt like CBS saying, these are the guys now. Sure. Maybe this will take a couple of weeks to make an announcement. maybe we've got some negotiating to do behind the scenes, but these are the guys now. You know, and we've talked about this before, if Tony Romo was Charles Barkley, this isn't happening, right? The thing is, is that he's expendable now. They are already sort of displeased.

A lot of people have talked about how he had not improved at his craft, and some people even were treading into the ground of finding him annoying. And if none of that is going on, If he was the star that he was in 2019, they don't fire him for this, right? Completely agree. There's two parts here. There's the OWI arrest and the video, and then there's this idea that Tony Romo is not great.

Yeah. And maybe worse than that, that he's not trying to be great, that it didn't feel like he was going out there and trying to improve as an announcer. A guy who's a number one guy on CBS, who's calling huge games, and who was being paid a ton of,

money by CBS to call games. Right. I think you need both of those ingredients to get to where we are today. Yeah, and it's interesting because if people don't think you're giving effort, because one of the things I, you back me up here if I'm right or tell me if I'm wrong, one of the things that made John Madden like so iconic is that it really seemed like he worked really hard and spent all his time, like going over the game plans, talking to people, that he, you know, that he lived this job.

Whereas with Tony, it was like he was really good at it, but it didn't seem like it was a part of his life that he devoted to it. Now, you could even say that for Chris Collinsworth. It's like he is steeped in this game. He spends his free time working on this and getting better at it and learning all the data, talking to all the people, watching all the film, right? Is that what you think? One thing I've learned in covering sports television

is the people that are great work their asses off. Yeah. That's the thing they have in common. I mean, look, you can say that about a lot of places in life, but in sports TV, it is a grind. Yeah. It is a grind. And when they see other people in the industry that they don't think are grinding like they are or suspect aren't grinding like they are, that's the thing that gets them. That's the thing they cannot tolerate because they know how much of their lives they have to devote to making that game look and sound good on TV. Well, is the, and, you know, far be it from us to talk out of school, is the assumption or allegation or accusation that Tony Romo was not grinding tape.

Look, all you had to do was watch television, and over the last couple years, there were times when it didn't seem like he knew the names of the linemen that were playing in the games. Yeah. He knew all about Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow. He knew about the receivers, but you just listen to him

call a game and be like, did you ask about the guards and the tackles in this game? Yeah. Like, Chris Collinsworth's giving me that. John Madden sure as hell gave us that back in the day. It just felt like he was going in and studying if he was, you know, to the extent he was studying, it was in a very, very narrow way.

And then the other complaint about him, which I think was true, was in 2017 when he started this job, he was fresh off the field. Yep. So he just knew stuff. And then we get along the way and it feels like, hey, are you now like working twice as hard because you're not coming into the booth with knowledge about all these players that you played against?

I mean, we're nine years in now. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it changes so fast. I mean, part of another part of my job here at the Ringer is to talk about football. And people think there's this an assumption because I used to play football in the 90s that I know all the verbiage and like what's going on out there. And it's not true. Like I'm going to have to go to film school or I'm at the grind tape with people

because like the game can change that quickly on you. Like from not just from the turnover and personnel, but just the way the game is played, the formations they use. like, again, this is my rudimentary knowledge. There's so much more motion, for instance, in football now, which is sort of a take from the CFL. And that wasn't a thing that happened when I played. It was, like, exotic to put sensibody emotion in 1997.

And so, yeah, you can fall out of, you can fall out of that information loop really, really quickly. And it's just surprising that an NFL quarterback that that would ever happen to them, right? Well, it's funny to talk about this, because that's just all jobs. Like if you and I were on here talking about politics and we're talking about the Obama coalition,

we would sound hopelessly out of step and out of touch with political reality today. And I'm sure a CPA thinks the same way and somebody who works in home construction and everything else. It just so happens. This guy is being paid $17 million a year to call football games on television. And we're all sitting there watching it.

And you could just feel that Tony Romo was not devoting himself to his craft in the way that Tom Brady is, Chris Collinsworth is, those kind of guys are. And by the way, this goes back to Tony Romo

being a Dallas Cowboys quarterback. I just think, again, I don't want to be one of those guys that's like, oh, you're lazy, and you don't have the stuff it takes to win, but as a Cowboys fan,

I really love Tony Romo. It was very apparent that he was built differently than Peyton Manning and Tom Brady. And I'm not talking about talent. I'm talking about it just meant something to him that was fundamentally different than it meant to those guys. That makes sense. What if he's incapable of giving off try hard and he actually is doing all this stuff and he just can't fake it in the way that a lot of, well, not fake it, but he just can't.

You know, they always used to say like. It's his affect is what you're saying. Well, because people used to say that a bit, and this is a weird analogy, Tracy McGrady. It just seemed like he was a little bit, you know, lackadaisical in terms, as opposed to, Kobe. But my thought was, you don't get to be Tracy McGrady unless you're working really hard. Right? Like, you just can't become Tracy McGrady. And I don't know. I mean, you know, Tony Romo, I thought was a very good quarterback if you look at his similarity scores. Why was I looking at Tony Romo's similarity scores today? But like similar to Joe Namath, the god, Steve McNair,

Mark Brunel, some Jim Kelly and Roger Stolbach. I mean, he, I just, yeah, I just wonder if And if he would ever tell us, like, if Tony, please come on here and talk to us about, like, what your prep was like. But I just wonder if, like, he just doesn't give off the same effect as those guys. Right. I think that's part of it. But when you go through the game and you're not saying the linemen by their names, you don't even have, like, one or two things to say about the left tackle about the stud defensive end. I'm like, am I sure you know that? Yeah.

That's all. Wouldn't you get that in if you knew that? I mean, that can be as big a part of the game as a quarterback. He's a very, very quarterback-centric announcer. Yeah. Now, he was calling predominantly AFC games in a time of Mahomes and Allen and Burrow. Like, that's where the action was. Right.

By the way, that gave him a lot of his mojo over those years. He had some great games to call. Yeah. Some really epic playoff games between those guys. Right. And it's like Tony Romo was kind of in a way, it was the guy you wanted, right? And he could kind of paper over his, lack of interest in the rest of the field.

Yeah. But you're right. I think there's a little bit of affect mixed in there somewhere. I think some of it's, and he was like, again, he was very much like that as a quarterback too, right? Yeah. He was not screaming and cursing on the sidelines. He was not throwing iPads like Tom Brady.

Well, also, I mean, remember, he got hit with going to Cancun or whatever, what, Cabo with Jessica Simpson at some point during. Oh, yeah, Jason. Yeah, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, on, and it was just like, it was a way to sort of undercut the idea that he cared about the game in a way that the greats did. But I would also say to, and this is really unfortunate for him, if this is the case, it's really tough to fake it or to not be the madness sort of guy that people want in that role

today because fans are just so much more educated than ever before. They know so much more about football than they ever did even 10 years ago. There's access to film. People are, like, I don't know why a regular person would watch all 22, but that shit happens. You know what I mean? I agree. I don't know either, but it does happen. It happens.

And we demand more of these guys because of that. Yeah, that's right. Because our base, again, like, you and I just listen to the ringer NFL show, listen to Solack, read Barnwell. And you're like, just by osmosis, not even really paying attention, I know more about football. I can throw out some terms, even if I'm kind of faking it. It would show at the mesh point. Yeah. If you're an announcer, you kind of have to meet me halfway. Yeah.

And I can kind of tell something. I also think his trajectory is very important here because he started off so hot as an announcer. Yeah. Just like he started out as an undrafted quarterback. And then what happened? He levels off. Yep. Right?

He doesn't take that next step. So when you see somebody like that, both as a player and as a broadcaster, you're like, I'm projecting you as an all-timer. potential Hall of Famer. And then when I check in in year nine and you're kind of the same guy you were in year one, that makes him seem like, I think, that makes it seem more disappointing

than if he'd just been this guy the whole time. That's right. That's fair. I mean, he was a phenomenon. It's really hard to, I mean, it's just shocking that we're at this point now, but I remember when Tony Romo got on there and he was a phenomenon, calling out the plays before they happened,

all that, that little, magic trick, right? And, you know, it's just crazy how quickly things can turn on you. I love that magic trick because I remember talking to people in the industry in 2017 when he started. They're like, well, you know, my guy could do that. He could do that if he wanted to. It was like, well, he has a magic trick. Like, sorry, you know, he did it. He was willing to look dumb if he was wrong, but most of the time he was right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember the Wall Street Journal did a piece that year that, like, tallied up Romo's.

predictions. Maybe it was in 2018, like to tallied up like what percentage of his predictions he got right. And it was shockingly high. It's actually pretty good. I want to go over his history with you for just a second here. Okay. 2016, Tony Romo was the starting quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. In the preseason that year, he hurt his back. Remember that. And Dak Prescott took over the starting job. Tony Romo's on the shelf for a while. Everybody thinks he's going to come back and guess what happens. Dak Prescott and Zeke Elliott in their rookie years lead the Cowboys to a 13 and 3 season.

Cowboys are really good. So when Romo comes back, he actually doesn't get his starting job back. Which is shocking. And he gave this speech in Dallas when it was clear

that the Cowboys weren't going to put him back in the lineup. This is November 2016. It was like something that happens in a movie. I've never seen a quarterback say, hey, I need to give a speech and concede that I'm not the guy anymore in the middle of the season. Yeah. And Romo said this of Dak Prescott, he's earned the right to be our quarterback. As hard as that is for me to say he's earned that right.

And he continues, I think Dak knows I have his back and I know he has mine. It was like this really emotional moment because people in Dallas are really attached. Wasn't he tearing up? I feel like he was crying when he did this, right? Yeah. It was very emotional. Yeah. Very emotional.

So that's the end of his run in Dallas. The following season 2017, CBS decides that Phil Sims, who was not very good, was not going to be their number one color analyst anymore. And they hire Tony Romo straight off the field or off the bench and make him their number one guy immediately. Yeah. Which is an absolutely crazy thing to do. Objectively crazy thing to do. Yeah. I mean, I mean, it was just a testament to the power of the Cowboy Star, I thought. I mean, even though it sounded crazy and people that are on TV, you know, at the time, I didn't follow this as closely as I did. I'm just like, well, you know, he was former Dallas Cowboys quarterback. Isn't that what happens, you know? Fox has this thing called no Chiron necessary when they hire certain people. Like, you get Derricketer. Yep. You get Big Poppy. You obviously get Tom Brady. Like, you don't even need to put the name on the screen and.

tell you who it is. Tony Romo was pretty close to that. Yeah. In 2017. Remember he was doing commercials? I think it was Corona and direct TV at that point. I mean, again, it was that, I mean, because Tony Romo was not just, I mean, even while he was playing, he was a celebrity. I think that, do you think it was the Jessica Simpson thing that elevated him beyond the plus Cowboys quarterback? Yeah, plus Carle's quarterback, but like that took it to the next level because that put him in tabloids, a whole other group of people are paying attention to him then. That's just something that didn't happen. for everybody.

The trip to Mexico was a big part of it too. Yeah. The playoff disaster in Seattle. Oh, man. I felt so bad for him. He was just kind of like, he had a lot of strange notoriety about him. Yeah. Even when he was a really good NFL quarterback, the Des non-catch in Green Bay.

Yeah. That was a Tony Romo pass. There was just a lot there. And you mentioned the, we mentioned the Mexico thing. Like, the other one was there was this game where they lost to the Eagles in the last week of the season. and they had to beat the Eagles to make the playoffs and they got killed and when Romo met the sports writers

he said if this is the worst thing that ever happens to me then I'll have lived a pretty good life and I remember at the time defending him because of course he just got killed in Dallas the next day I mean the quarterback of the Cowboys was like hey man lose the Eagles the worst thing that happened to me then I got it pretty good

and I was like guys take this. This is a guy telling the truth to you. He's admitting that he's built differently than Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. They would never say that. They would never allow themselves

probably even to think something like that. This dude's just built differently. Take this as a very honest self-assessment from Tony Romo. Yeah. But again, that just created this idea that Roma was not just a really, really good quarterback of the Cowboys, a famous quarterback,

but also a guy who just had stuff attached to him in a funny way. There was a vulnerability to him that I think that also, because look, I hated the cowboys growing up. Like, I just didn't, you know, I mean, I've never been clear to me on this podcast before. What? But, you know, I'll tell you a couple of things. Well, I'm not going to get too much of it.

Living in Dallas, the DFW area for like eight years, that helped to change it. And I really didn't like the way people attacked Tony Romo because I just thought people were being stupid. I was like, no, he's a really good quarterback. It's hard to win a Super Bowl. That's why Dan Marino didn't win one. You know, just sometimes not obviously, Damarino was a much better quarterback than Tony Romo, but it's hard to win that.

And I felt like he just took the burden of that, that he was blamed for that unfairly. But we're thinking about this vulnerability. Just think about who defended Tony Romo for a second. Terrell Owens, he made Terrell Owens cry in public. That's my quarterback, man. Yeah, I mean, Torrell Owens, who hated Jeff Garcia, Donovan. McNam, didn't get along, so got into a fight with Hugh Douglas. He was a notable, like, locker room cancer, or at least he, you know, he was always in

the middle of shit. But Tony Romo made him cry. And so it just said there was something about Tony Romo. And I just, I think that's also part of what came through on TV. Like, he just seemed very approachable, like just sort of a guy that's not lucked up into this, but just, you know, hey, I'm here and I'm going to enjoy it. And sometimes, you know, I'm just an everyday guy and shit. sometimes I'm just going to drop this,

this extra point hold, right? Absolutely. And that's why I defended him too, because I was just like, hey, this guy's actually being honest. What do we want? Do we want athletes to, like, speak in fake cliches, like, oh, this is really disappointing.

We'll get him next time. Or do you want this moment where you're like, ooh, we just learn something about this dude. Yeah. Today. And we want to reward him for that. Right. You don't have to like the sentiment.

You can totally say, hey, look, I understand this is not the worst thing that happened in your life, but you're paying millions of dollars. You're playing for the Cowboys. You understand the deal here, right? I totally understand that, but I'm like, you just learn something about it. Like, if he's willing to give you that, take it.

Learn from it. Understand him as a guy. It was the nice version of LeBron calling people broke after he lost the finals. Tomorrow, you guys going to have to wake up as yourselves, and I'm going to go live my life. Whereas Tony Romo, it's like, hey, I'm, If this is the best thing, it's, you know, not too bad. That's a much nicer way, a much more humane way of explaining it to people.

Much more so. So 2017, he's on CBS. He's the number one guy. He's doing his predictions. He's really good. It works shockingly well on television, perhaps because of some of that vulnerability. You and I were talking the other day. It was like, what if ESPN went out and got Travis Kelsey next year and just put him on TV?

Yeah. We'd be like, man, is that going to work? Can this, can somebody just learn television in week one of year one? Yeah. Tony Romo did. Yeah. He did. I remember the AFC title game that first year was Patriots versus Jaguars.

Oh man. Oh, man. Oh, man. Jagu was almost got them. Yeah, man. And the Jags had an early lead. And Romo doing that game and it was like, he feels like the right guy for a moment like this. Mm-hmm.

He feels like a number one guy. and that's some of what it is, right? Like, JJ Watt in year two, he's in year two now. He wasn't as good as Romo was in year one. He's just not. If you think that, you're wrong. He's just not. I'm not even sure JJ Watt in year two is as good as Tony Romo is right now.

Yeah. Like, Romo just had this presence about it. Mm-hmm. And I think part of it was he was excited to be there. Yeah. He was smiling. he did not think of this as like, you know, oh, this is a terrible burden that I get to call the AFC game of the week.

He seemed happy. Well, that's kind of why I'm just surprised. And maybe, I mean, again, I'm going riding the fence here. But, I mean, do people really care about the offensive guards or do they want somebody that is conveying the enthusiasm and the excitement of being in a press box and watching, getting the opportunity? Because I've always felt like that, too.

Like, man, sometimes you're just like, man, I can't believe I'm doing this job, man. This is so cool. And Tony Romo conveys that to people. And, you know, like, he's like, I recognize that I'm privileged to be here. But I guess the other side is that is like, well, if it really is that much of a privilege, and maybe you should indicate that you're working really hard at it. When you say, do people care, are you talking about normal football fans? Are you talking about media critics?

Do you care about the guards? Do you really? I think I've been spoiled. by the Collinsworth types. Like I think when I learned something about that, you know how they always come back on NBC from the commercial? And Chris Collinsworth was like,

Mike, let me tell you what, let me tell you what T.J. Watt is doing to this left tackle right now. And it's a little cut up, and he explains it and shows the moves and everything. And I'm like, I just feel smarter having to watch that. Sure. 30 seconds of tape.

Tony Ruhon just didn't do that. Right. He just didn't do that. But go back to your emotion. point of view. That is, emotion was Tony Romo's superpower. Mm-hmm. This job is not just about X's nose. Mm-hmm.

It is about taking the things we feel when we're sitting at home, watching a football game on the couch, and dignifying them on television. Yes. Oh, I like that. Yeah. Uh-huh. Tony Romo was really good at that. Oh, Jim, I'm so nervous. Jim, here we go.

Was it corny? Yes. Was it grading after a few years? Yes. Do I think he was using his excitement to cover the fact that he might not have been as prepared as some other announcers? Also, yes. But it was a superpower. He was good at it.

And guess what? It worked. It worked. Like he was able to say, hey, this is a game. that's not just about pulling guards and stuff like that. This is a game that needs to be felt on television as well as explained. Yeah, I mean, yeah, to convey the idea that, man, all these guys are in the huddle, like every, there's millions, tens of thousands of people in the stadium,

millions of people around the world are watching this game. It hinges on this one play. And somebody that can convey the, like, the tension in these moments. I like that. I enjoyed that. Oh, Jim. Oh, so. I'm so nervous, Jim.

Press boxes. We demand that we make Brian Curtis do his impersonations of Chris Collinsworth, Tony. I don't know what other ones you got, but we're going to do a special episode, and Brian's going to drop all of his impersonations for you guys. Oh, my God. I need to work on that. The Collinsworth one was good. The Coussworth one was good.

You should have done it when he was here. That's me doing Couss and Sall doing Collinsworth, though. It's kind of a second generation impersonation. So go back to the emotions and the smiles. That's why I believe Tony Romo changed television. Wow. Remember announcing in 2017, Chris Collinsworth on NBC was a gold standard.

Troy Aitman on Fox had not yet had the Renaissance. Phil Sims on CBS was not biologically alive. And over on ESPN, we had, wait for it, John Gruden. Romo comes in. He gets praise to the moon. He's different. He's new.

He's exciting to media critics like me. And all of a sudden, everybody starts to raise their game a little bit. I mentioned the Aikman Renaissance, the Aikmanazons. There's no way in hell that Troy Aikman, in some part of his soul, was not fired. up by the fact that Tony Romo was getting more praise than he was in 2017. Well, yeah, that's the thing. I guess it's just, it's just shocking that, you know, I mean, obviously you know that these guys are competitive.

I mean, they're hyper competitive. They're the most insanely competitive people in the world. And can you just imagine, like, Troy Eickman, who's been doing this job? I mean, since, I mean, I'm shit. 25 years now. 25 years since I was in college, you know, or just out of college. And he looking at Tony Romo and is like, what the fuck? I've got to be emotional in front of you people now.

I've got to be excited for you people now. And if you're Tony Robo, you're like, I have three rings. My career as a Dallas Cowboys quarterback absolutely squashes this dudes. Yeah. And people are telling me that he's a better announcer than I am. Yeah, man. And the thing about Aitman was he didn't come in and do, oh, Joe, oh, I'm so nervous. His superpower turned out to be honesty.

Mm-hmm. going and being a little brutal when he needed to about a coach or a quarterback. Truth. Which Tony could not do. He had a different superpower. And once he unleashed that, all of a sudden, we were like, Troy Eggman's best in the business are right there. He's really freaking great. Can you take me back?

Because I don't remember what your thoughts were about Gruden. Are you surprised that Gruden was not a person credited with changing it? because, I mean, he did the same kind of, he was like not a knockoff Madden, but like his enthusiasm was a part of the attraction, right? It was. And the whole spider-wide banana thing. Yeah.

I think you saw him probably straddling the worlds between X's and O's and getting up in his feelings that we're talking about, the announcers have to do. Yeah. I think the difference was Monday Night Football and ESPN at that point was a really crappy package of games. That's right. That's right.

That's right. It just was not as prominent. It felt like, extra football rather than important football. So I think that was part of it. Also, I just think he was goofy. It's weird to say that versus Romo, because Roma's also goofy and corny.

But just to me, whenever I watched Gruden and Toriko, again, what a given both men's trajectories that is now in retrospect. And also Gruden and Sean McDonough, and ditto to that, by the way. But the idea that they were working It just seemed like Gruden was just, I don't know, I never, I never took him seriously as a broadcaster. He was willing to laugh at himself.

Or he was willing, he knew with people the Chucky thing and the wake up at 417 in the morning. That's, I mean, that is something that, I mean, for people that aren't old enough to remember, when John Gruden was a head coach, the, the, the narrative was that he woke up at 417 in the morning every morning when he was a coach so he could get in there and, you know, get out to the intensity. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Unlike those other coaches who roll in in noon. I mean, you know, Steve Spurrier, Steve Spurreier,

playing golf. I'm not willing to do that. But yeah, it's just, yeah, it's just interesting because I just wondered if Gruden had anything to do with changing that. And it's just shocking that he was willing to give it all up in a way that people now got the, how he's remembered the way that he is, you know? I guess in a way it was an interesting preview for his barstool years. Like he was willing to do bits. Yeah.

And comedy. Obviously, there's a lot of reasons he's over on Barstool and not on major network anymore, even though some people are weirdly trying to get him back. You merge the bits with the racism. He's a perfect place for himself. You found the magic. He found a venue that it worked for. So that was early Romo.

Some of the praise, I remember my friend Richard Dyche saying that he was going to be better than John Madden as a broadcaster. And I love Richard, but that's one of the times I wanted to do a wellness chat. I'm like better than John Madden. After a couple years, John Madden, the man who was not only revolutionary in terms of introducing X's and O's and how football is played into a broadcast, but was also just like a great entertainer.

And that was one of the things about Romo. We saw this later. If the game was great, Romo was great. If the game sucked, Romo sucked. Madden, if the game sucked, was like, I got this. I'm funny. I'm a comedian. Oh, somebody's getting blown out in the Super Bowl.

We're doing Gatorade buckets now. I can just entertain you for the rest of this three hours. This is one of my superpowers, right? I'm just a genuinely entertaining person, even outside of a football telecast. Romo, I think, relied on the big game. He needed Patrick Mahomes going down the field in the fourth quarter. Yeah, to be great. Yeah.

I'm maddie. You imagine one of one. That's a tough, that's a tough competition. That's like saying somebody's going to be Charles Barkley someday, you know, in that role. I love Richard. I really do. Yeah. That was just like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Richard, I don't think you needed a wellness check. I get it. I understand what you're trying to do there. I get it. It was just a take. Yeah. So we mentioned the turn on Romo, which I think happens probably 21, 22, if I had to just point at something that's hard to measure. After the money.

After the money. The money happens right before the pandemic. And there was a lot of stuff like, oh, man, if this had been, you know, if this had been a couple weeks later, does Tony Romo really get that much? Right. If you remember, the money comes because ESPN was trying to steal him away from CBS. Oh, that's right. That's right. ESPN had just done the Jason Whitten and BoogerMobile experiment.

they were going to potentially pair Tony Romo with Joe Tessator. We're now getting into interesting chapters of broadcasting history here. I think they would have been great together, by the way. I think they would have really worked and popped together. They didn't get him, but they drove the price up. All of a sudden, $17 million a year was the new normal for a broadcaster. Every sports TV executives had exploded at that moment. It was like, dear God, what have we gotten into?

But you're right. after that all of a sudden uh-oh he's not the shiny new toy anymore he's the highest paid broadcaster in the game we have expectations the money um when we know that you hit it big it fucks it up for almost everybody in in sports because then there's just a point it's like all right people want to see you earn it then you remember what a rod was with the rangers right and he signed that contract yes yeah right and i was there and it was just like he never could make anybody happy because the money. The money was what elevated him and people were like, all right, they say you're worth $250 million, prove it. And this is the thing with Roma.

Was it $25, $250 million? $20 million. I think that was the A-Rod number. That was the A-Rod number, yeah. Which was crazy at the time. I mean, it still kind of sounds crazy. Was that fair to Tony Romo? No. Because he earned it, right? Like, he was making that much money because, one, he was making that much money because, one, he had been good, and two, there was a market for it. Yeah. I never felt bad for CBS that they were paying in that much money. I was always somebody who said, like, I can criticize his performance because that's what I do, right? I'm going to watch television and tell you, do I think this guy's good or bad or in what ways do I find him deficient?

Mm-hmm. And I certainly did that with Tony Romo, but to me it was never the problem was never that he was making that much money. Who cares, right? Like this is billions of dollars these networks are paying for the NFL. You're not going to pay the lead announcer that much money to be the face of the network. Right. To carry this huge package for you along with Jim Nance. Mm-hmm.

I wasn't really aware of what the salary skill was there. And it did sound like a lot of money. But, you know, I remember once in a time when I used to listen to daily sports talk radio and somebody told me that Jim Rome made like $30 million a year. And I was like, where Jim Roan makes 30, you know what I mean? I was just like, these guys, I don't know how to quantify their value, but I'm assuming that the TV executives do. And if he made the 17 million, I was like, sounds about right.

And look, you know, quantify the value is just a funny thing, right? Because it was a one-on-one thing. ESPN was really desperate. The desperation would not pay off for a few years until he wouldn't got Trey Aikman, who's wrapped up in the story again. Monizance. The egg monizons and pay eggment even more than Tony Romo was making. But he will be remembered, I think, partly for changing the market.

Every announcer, thank you, Mr. Romo. He made me a lot more money. Even people that didn't get to 17, they got a bump. Because all of a sudden, the going rate was different. Then Brady comes in and gets 35, and it's like, oh, okay, now it really changed things. This makes me want to see what Beasley-Rees made. Because when I was a kid... Beasley Reese.

When I was a kid in the Houston. The Houston Oilers were on, you know, I guess CBS did AFC back in the day. And so they, you know, the Houston Oilers were on, you know, they went on the road because you could never watch them at home because they never sold up the after them. NBC. NBC, that's right. Okay, it was NBC. And they never were the lead game, even until a little bit later, you know, when I was a teenager. But early on, they were always like the four-string guy.

So Beasley, I heard so many games called by Beasley Reese. and I would love to know what Beasley Rees made. Do you think it was seven figures? Oh, man. I don't think so, probably. Oh, hell no. Oh, man. Beasley Reese made $200,000.

Was it six figures? He made $200,000. Beasley Reese right in and let us know what you made. The world has changed so much since then. So Romo's legacy, we talked about the money. Yep. I think he will be known if this is it. And he says, by the way, in a statement, which I should read to you because this is also interesting.

Yeah. Proud of what I accomplished at CBS Sports over the last nine years, I approached my role as a game analyst the way I've approached everything in my life with a desire to win and be the best that I can be. I'm going to use this time to take a break, something I've never done before, and focus on my health and my family before moving on to my next opportunity. I am grateful for my time with CBS Sports and for the continued support of my family and friends as well as the NFL community and fans. So if he does take a break, and who knows if he ever comes back to broadcasting, because if you come back and you're not a number one guy, you really have to want to come back. Yeah.

Because the money won't be the same. The games won't be the same. The Super Bowls won't be the same. By the way, CBS calls the Super Bowl after this one. So they got to figure this out pretty much. Like Tony Bromo would have been calling the 2028 Super Bowl. Man. Mm-hmm.

He won't be anymore. but to me if I have to think of a legacy of him as an announcer, it's like that guy that plays football or basketball who's not a Hall of Famer, but is exciting and changes the game in a substantial way. When you look back and you're like, we needed this person at this particular time because they affected everyone that came after them, even if they were not the greatest ever to do it.

Man, we need to come up with the analogy for that now, the athlete. So I was sitting there this morning and I was like, comparing Tony Roman to Michael Vick is really weird for 800 reasons. But like something like that. Somebody like that who came in and you're like now playing quarterback is different than it was five minutes ago. The expectation has changed for guys, right? And then they were still captivating. They were a star. Even if Michael Vic didn't make the Hall of Fame, he will, I mean, he is a legend.

He's an Atlanta legend. He's a football legend because of who he was. So, yeah, that's a really good one. Reggie Bush. Reggie Bush is a good one. Yeah, Reggie Bush. Reggie Bush is a good one. These are all weird comps because Tony Romo like played at the same time.

Yeah, he was a football player. Yeah, right, yeah, right. But it's somebody who was a star, Tony Romo was a star in broadcasting. somebody who did things differently. Again, I think that Tony Romo, that's more of an emotional element than everything else, even though he gets so much credit for the predicted plays. It's a presence. It's a smile.

It's, you know, an emotional bond with the audience until it wasn't. That's him for me. And again, everything we said, if that does not happen in Wisconsin back in July, he's still calling Gaves for CBS. This is like media critics, you know, again, Again, I think there's probably a lot of people are, well, I knew that Tony Romo was, was, you know, not as great as everybody made him out to be early on. Guys, the bad reviews are part of this, but without those events in July,

Tony Romo still calling games. Is there any doubt in your mind if that's the case? Absolutely. And I'll just add to this because, you know, you're the expert here. I trust you. I depend on you to do this. But if I have to remember anything about Tony Romo's time on TV, and I hope he gets a chance to get back on TV.

I mean, man, Marv Albert, Greg Anthony, Michael Irvin, all these people got back on TV, man, you know. And so I think there is a path back for him. But for me, what Tony Romo has always been, is a guy that is comfortable being himself on camera. That is really hard to do, you know, that is really hard to do in the face of criticism. I mean, and I'm sure you learn a lot being the quarterback of the Cowboys,

about that. Oh, God. Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Brian Curtis and Andrew Marchand and Richard Deich. It's not the same spotlight. Yeah, just a matter. I mean, some people, like, I remember I was in Dallas when Quincy Carter was a court, Rebecca, the Cowboys.

And like, it can crush you, the expectations, the fame, all that stuff that are on that. And like Tony Romo, at least to me, has seemed like he's always been himself wherever he went, which is why he was able to go on TV and excel immediately. because it didn't, it didn't scare him. He was comfortable. And I think I kind of gave the sense of, I'm not even supposed to be here.

Ooh, that's a really good way to put it. I'm just like, what am I, someone said that meme. You might ask what I'm doing here. You know, he just had that kind of look about it. I'm like, all right. How did I get here? I'm starting quarterback of the Cowboys.

I'm from Eastern Illinois, man. Anything that happens after that is gravy. Such a good way to put it. Two more things to hit you with. Yeah. The statement he made. in September where he said

he talked about the back pain and the back surgeries. I mentioned that one in 2016 with the Cowboys, the back injury. And he said it led to a dependence on pain medication. And my efforts to get off those medications led to an overreliance on alcohol.

He also said, none of this is an excuse. These are my failures and I take responsibility for them. But that hit me a little bit. Yeah. Again, you don't have to make excuses. He's not making excuses. excuses, but when you think about these guys that are talking to us on television and the injuries

they had and the pain that they're in, that should be somewhere in the story of Tony Romo. Mm-hmm. The other thing I want to hit you with Joel is the game of musical chairs that we are about to enjoy in broadcasting. Mm-hmm. Tom Brady's not going anywhere on Fox. Chris Collinsworth's not going anywhere on NBC. That's basically all I can tell you.

Because Herbie signed an extension with Amazon. But then there's this weird out in the extension that says Amazon can pursue other people. One of those people is Sean McVeigh. If he decides to retire from broadcasting, he's been one of those guys like Tomlin. Everybody's like he's going to be really good. But there might be other people. We don't know. We don't know if that means like other big name broadcasters as well.

So there's that. We've got ESPN, which has not signed Troy 8man to an extension, though it has already signed Joe Buck to an extension. And according to Marchean, it's not going to deal with this until after the season, until after 8man calls the Super Bowl. What? Can you, I mean, that's, I feel like whenever I've heard of a situation, we're not going to talk about this to the end of the season. It's already bad. Does it ever go well? It's already bad, yeah.

It's the call after the season like, hey, we want to give you exactly what you want. We're just sorry. He's got time got away from us. We got Greg Olson, whose contract is up at Fox after this year, who's looking for a number one job. And he's really good enough to do that. Uh-huh. And then we've got the situation at CBS where they're going to take a look at JJ Watt as the number one guy for the rest of the year. But they're not obliged to give him that job beyond that.

Again, they've got a Super Bowl the year after this one. they'd be interested in Trey Ackman Greg Olson Travis Kelsey that seemed wacky even by the standards of CBS hiring Tony Romo

there's a lot of uncertainty out there in the world right now I thought we kind of got this out of our system TV wise with Buck and Aikman but man it just feels like the whole world could look different next year Mark is going to be reset again yeah nobody's nobody's taking a pay cut are they oh oh i mean if you got a bad agent if you do

you're your age i mean these agents i mean i'm sure i'm sure there's going to be reporting on this these agents are already working on this stuff right now though right probably even before tony romo this announcement came today right there's already this sort of back room maneuvering for what's next yeah because they owed him a lot of money you can't just be like okay goodbye yeah but even like if sean mcvay kind of surprised me if sean mcvay actually leaves the rams to do this he's one of those coaches speaking of things they talk about all the time oh i'm burned out maybe i should just step away come but do you imagine how much it's going to cost to get chan mcvay to leave coaching and call football games come me it's a lot of money yeah he's not yeah

oh this shah mcvay again he's not is even 45 he's let's see shaw mcvay is 40. He's 40 years old. He's 40 years old. That's, I mean, man, I'm saying this as a 48, that seems so young. And that's the thing, that's the thing about Madden that made him so interesting as a broadcaster is he was in his 40s, right? When he committed to this, and he never went back. So we got

to spend forever with John Madden on television. How fortunate were we to grow up with John Madden and Pat Somerall, man? John Madden was the best. He really was. And then there was Pat Sumerall with that very spare delivery. All right, he's Joel Anderson. I'm Brian Curtis.

Production Magic. By Isaiah Blakely and John Knott-Bones-Jones, doing us a great favor by squeezing in one more podcast this week. Coming up on the press box, Joel and I are back on Monday. We may have a special guest on Monday. Oh, am I going to be invited? Don't look at me like that.

What? Am I invited? I don't know. All right. Let's talk about this. We'll talk about it. I'm yes is the answer, but let's,

Okay. Coordinates. We've got to figure it out. Instagram press box ringer, email pressbox ringer at gmail.com. Hit us up on both those places. Jal will see you on Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media. Can't wait.