It was announced that Tony Romo is retiring from professional football on Tuesday morning, but in manner true only to the former Dallas Cowboys QB… it’s only been a few hours and he’s already back in the headlines. As many have speculated, Tony Romo will be joining CBS as their number one color analyst.
BREAKING: Sources: #TonyRomo to land with CBS next season and replace Simms as top analyst https://t.co/8OKA8gvxiz
— Sports Business Journal (@SBJ) April 4, 2017
Tony Romo retired in order to pursue a broadcasting career, and it doesn’t get any much bigger than this. CBS is where the NFL rose to supremacy in the 1970s, and it is one of the three major networks that the NFL is featured on in today’s world.
Romo will join CBS’ Jim Nantz in the booth, taking the seat that was occupied by former New York Giants QB Phil Simms. Football fans near and far have chirped for Simms to be replaced as is, and with an option like Tony Romo available it makes absolute sense why CBS would pounce.
CBS carries the NFL’s AFC package so we still won’t see him around the Dallas Cowboys very often. It is worth nothing though that CBS and FOX alternate Thanksgiving games every year between the Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys. As fate would have it, CBS has the Dallas Cowboys call in 2017… meaning that Tony Romo will come home, like many other families around Turkey Day, on Thanksgiving.
CBS is also the home of the NCAA Tournament and The Masters. Tony Romo has an affinity for both basketball and golf, so CBS offers Tony Romo many different types of lures. In fact it is actually Masters Week as we sit, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see Tony Romo join his new partner Jim Nantz at Augusta National to make an announcement in front of the CBS audience.
Being a color commentator of this stature comes with a lot more than this, though. The Super Bowl alternates every year among FOX, NBC, and CBS. FOX was the home for Super Bowl LI, and NBC will host Super Bowl LII. This means that, yes, Tony Romo will join Jim Nantz in Atlanta, Georgia for Super Bowl LIII and every third Super Bowl from that point forward.
With CBS hiring Tony Romo as their top color commentator this also means that of the three major networks (CBS, FOX, and NBC) that two of the top three color commentator spots are held by former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks, Troy Aikman is FOX’s. It was also the CBS call of Thanksgiving Day 2015 when the Cowboys hosted the Carolina Panthers that was the last time we saw Tony Romo start for the Dallas Cowboys.
Tony Romo will still be heavily involved in the world of the NFL. As he’ll primarily do AFC games there’s a good chance that he only does about three Cowboys games in 2017: Denver, Oakland, and Thanksgiving.
Congratulations to Tony Romo on this new endeavor! Cowboys Nation is proud of you!
Wishing him all the best!