After Tony Romo’s arrest last month, TMZ published a 31-minute “extended cut” of the body-camera footage from the Wisconsin police officer who arrested CBS Sports’ star NFL analyst on suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence. The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback’s familiar goofy geniality collides with the gravity and stilted formality of an encounter with law enforcement. The video of a disoriented Romo struggling to answer basic questions and failing a field sobriety test, and his rictus-grinning, disheveled, head-askew mug-shot, form a glaring contrast with his smart-suited look a year earlier: beaming as he posed in the spotlight with his play-by-play partner, Jim Nantz, at the network’s preseason media preview.
Romo initially told the officer he had not been drinking before saying he had had a single Corona. He has not issued a public statement on the incident since. The arrest and the attention mean that one of the best-known television personalities in American sport will start the season as a color commentator in a grey area.
Romo was scheduled to be in Minnesota on 13 September to call the game between the Vikings and the Green Bay Packers on the first Sunday of the season. Instead he is on indefinite leave and former Houston Texans star JJ Watt has been promoted from CBS’s second-tier crew to call the game with Nantz. Every week matters given the NFL’s short season but it’s unlikely that CBS will determine Romo’s future before his court date on 21 September.
Unusually among US states, Wisconsin typically treats a first-offense DUI as a civil rather than a criminal offense. This is an important distinction in law, and perhaps in Romo’s employment contract, but less relevant in the court of public opinion. The incident is another strike against a 46-year-old broadcaster who has lately drawn scrutiny for a questionable work ethic, according to the Athletic, as well as occasional on-air gaffes and apparently waning skills.
While Tom Brady has grown into his Fox Sports role after a wooden start, Romo’s analytical talent arguably diminished as seasons passed, rosters refreshed and his first-hand knowledge of the league’s teams, players and coaches became outdated. Born in California and raised in Wisconsin, Romo spent all 13 years of his NFL career with the Cowboys and rose from relative obscurity to become one of the league’s biggest names. He was a star at the NCAA second-tier Eastern Illinois University yet went unselected in the 2003 draft.
Still, he signed for Dallas as a free agent. Initially a raw third-stringer, he spent three-and-a-half seasons as a back-up before seizing his chance in 2006 when the struggling veteran Drew Bledsoe squandered the starting job. Although his career never reached Hall of Fame levels, he remains the franchise’s leader in career passing touchdowns, a remarkable achievement for an undrafted player from a small school.
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