Emergency Pod: Tony Romo out at CBS

0:03Welcome into the SPJ Sports Media Pod, our first emergency pod here on Friday afternoon. And we're doing this emergency pod today because Tony Romo is officially out at CBS Sports, obviously arrested for OWI a couple months back. Austin Karp here with me, Josh Carpenter. We're going to just discuss it real quickly. Offs and off the top, what's your initial reaction to Tony Romo and CBS officially parting ways? Not surprised at all because, I mean, Josh, you and I have been talking about this pretty much since the arrest on our podcast. And based on the statements that we've seen from CBS Sports, based on the original statements that we saw from Romo and his lawyer, all of the legal language that I've seen in every statement that I've ever read, this had all the trademarks of two parties going their separate ways.

0:53And CBS couldn't let this drag out all season. We'll see how J.J. Watt does. Because there is a, again, as we've talked about, a game of musical chairs going on here with these analyst roles. We saw some of that take form with Prime Video, Curb Street staying there for another couple of years. That happened this week. But now we know J.J. Watt's going to be in that chair at CBS the rest of this season. But beyond that, we don't know what the answer is. CBS has the Super Bowl next season after ESPN. Is J.J. Watt the person they want doing that Super Bowl, or are they going to go after somebody else?

1:28Does Greg Olson come in? Greg Olson comes to mind. Troy Aikman. We've seen kind of a, like, is it going to happen sort of thing. Joe Buck, in his comments, has said, yeah, I'd love to have him back, but it sounds like Troy has something that he wants to achieve, especially a number out there that he wants to get. Is that a number that ESPN can get to? I think ESPN does want him back. I think they like having that duo. this is I think going to rest solely in Troy and Troy's camp yeah it's interesting you know you mentioned you didn't think Romo was coming back all along I kind of like was holding it not holding out hope but I there was a small part of me that thought that he might come back I think it's been so incredible to see I mean if you look just five six years ago Tony Romo was far and away the number one analyst like not just in football but like in sports I mean he was predicting every play he was wildly popular and I don't really know where that you know where that changed I I think people thought maybe he got a little bit goofy and was just not quite as locked in as he was in those early years.

2:29And so, yeah, the narrative around Romo has really changed because I would I think, you know, if this happens three years ago, there's probably a groundswell of support for him. They're like, hey, please don't take away Tony Romo from from the viewers. Everyone loved him. And now it's like as soon as this arrest happened, people were just like clamoring for him to be off the air. So it's been a pretty quick turnaround in my mind to see him depart like this, you know, just a couple months here after this arrest. As you said, CBS couldn't, they don't want this to drag out over the entire NFL season.

3:02Hey, is Romo coming back this week or next? Or is he, you know, my big question now is like, what's the market for Tony Romo going forward? You know, does another network pick him up? I tend to feel like another network will pick him up. I still think he's very high profile. I tend to think he's still pretty good at his job. You know, maybe he's a different analyst than Tom Brady, but I still think he's pretty good at his job. And you look at some of the other analysts out there, not to name any names, but there are some that to me leave a lot to be desired. And I think there would be value in a Tony Romo.

3:33Maybe heading into next season, you let this breathe for a year, this rest, you get past that. And then, you know, maybe you haven't heard Tony Romo for a year. And so maybe people are ready for him to come back. So it wouldn't shock me to see another network pick him up, obviously, in maybe a lesser role than, you know, side by side with Jim Nance. But maybe you see another network pick him up heading into the next season. I mean, maybe not this season, but what if Netflix picks him up for a game next season? They got five games a season. Luke Keekly's great. Don't get me wrong. And we're going to see how he does on those games this year, some of the games that he's going to do.

4:03But that could be a place where he tries to rehabilitate things like that. I also continue to think, Josh, that Tony Romo may be better suited for a studio role. I think he has that fun, loose kind of vibe about him. Those seats, there are so many of them. Everybody and their cousin talks about football on the airwaves or streaming or where have you. So maybe that presents a unique opportunity for Tony to kind of switch it up. We saw Phil Simms kind of do that when he left that CBSA booth. He went into an analyst role for a while. I think Tony Romo might be able to do something similar, and then we'll see what happens.

4:39Well, and I think Tony Romo still is very young. I mean, I know he's, what is he, probably mid-40s? I don't have it in front of me. He's probably mid-40s at this point. Well, it counts. He's still, you know, that's young in football years and analyst years. Thank you, Josh. I appreciate you telling that to us guys in our mid-40s. Anyway, he's pretty young, and I think really, you know, if he's good at this job, I mean, you see how many of these analysts do it well into their 70s and even 80s in some cases. So I think Romo, if the market's there for him, I still think he could be, and this is just maybe me personally speaking, I was always a fan of his.

5:14I liked his analysis. I thought he was witty. I thought he was funny. I thought he was a little bit, I think sometimes he'd need a little bit of goofiness on a broadcast. I always really enjoyed hearing him call games. It was like, to me, I thought I'm jumping in, you know, oh, Jim, like, and all this stuff with Nance. Like, to me, it was just fun. I didn't take it so seriously that I was getting upset about some of his antics and things like that. So I think there will be a market for Tony Romo going forward. It's just a matter of where that ends up. And you bring up a great point about there are so many standalone packages in the NFL now where it's like, hey, just come and call one or two games here or there.

5:47You know, maybe that's his next his next route. We'll find out. I mean, offseason, that's when I think it happens. I don't think we get any resolution on Tony Romo's future during this season. I think just like NFL free agency, it's going to be something that's after the Super Bowl. Yeah, for sure. Austin, great catching up on a Friday afternoon. Tony Romo, CBS Parting Ways. Big news. That'll do it for this emergency SBJ Sports Media Pod. We'll catch you guys next time.