CBS believes Tony Romo will be great as the network’s lead NFL analyst. But CBS doesn’t know whether it’ll work. At this point, no one does.
Former ABC and CBS NFL broadcaster Dan Dierdorf, a Hall of Fame offensive lineman, recently explained the challenges Romo will be facing during an appearance on the Talk of Fame radio program.
“It’s hard,” Dierdorf said. “It’s hard work. It takes a special person, and when I say ‘special,’ I mean . . . you’re juggling a lot of balls in the air at the same time. You’re talking to America. You’re trying to make a point, [and] you have to be concise when you do it. You have a producer and/or a director talking to you at the same time in your ear, and it really befuddles lots of people who have tried it.
“Yeah, Tony has a fantastic personality. He’s eloquent. He has a fun demeanor to him that will translate. I think people will really like it. But it’s impossible to tell whether or not he’s going to be able to handle what it takes to be a successful broadcaster.
“If I learned one thing in 30 years, you just never know going in who’s going to be good and who’s not going to be good. CBS is taking a real chance in someone who’s never been in a broadcast booth before and putting him on that stage. It’s a roll of the dice.”
Indeed it is. But as Mike Tirico of NBC recently explained in a visit to PFT Live, Romo will get better with more and more reps. Eventually, he’ll reach his ceiling.
The question is whether the floor will be high enough to vindicate CBS for throwing the same set of dice that caused the network not very long ago to crap out with the decision to make Mike Carey the network’s rules expert.