CBS Sports has placed NFL analyst Tony Romo on leave “until further notice,” the network said, after he pleaded no contest to an operating-while-intoxicated charge from a July arrest in Wisconsin.
Romo, 46, wrote on Instagram that he is focusing on “my health, my family and, in time, my return to CBS.”
He lost his driving privileges for six months. His blood-alcohol level was measured at .15, nearly twice Wisconsin’s legal limit. Video from the arrest has circulated widely.
Romo still has four years and $72 million remaining on the 10-year, $180 million contract he signed in 2020. That deal followed a three-year, $10 million rookie TV pact and came as CBS sought a long-term No. 1 analyst with NFL media rights talks approaching.
Romo and Nantz were expected to become CBS’s signature NFL pairing — calling AFC Championship Games and Super Bowls when the network had them. Instead, the pairing faded, much as Nantz’s earlier run with Phil Simms did late in that partnership.
Critics have said Romo’s analysis has slipped for several seasons and that CBS has pressed him to put more work into the craft
.Whether Romo returns — and in what role — is unresolved. A move back to the No. 1 team appears unlikely for now. A No. 2 pairing with Eagle is possible but considered a long shot. More plausible is a negotiated exit that leans on a morals clause and other contract language to settle the remaining $72 million, a process that could end in a legal fight over how much he is paid to leave.
Until CBS and Romo reach a resolution, his status is expected to remain one of the NFL season’s central media storylines.