As the NFL schedule-makers planned the 2017 season, Tony Romo loomed large.
NFL Senior Director of Broadcast Michael North said on NFL Network that he and the others in the league office tasked with putting together the schedule took a lot of time to consider where Romo might go, and how often they could get his team on national television.
“There was a lot of thought put into his playing career,” North said of Romo. “There was a chance he was going to be the quarterback of the Texans for a minute. There was a chance he might have been quarterback of the Broncos. . . . The Houston at New England game, for instance, right now it’s a 1 o’clock CBS game, probably only going to be on in 25 percent of the country. If that were Romo vs. Brady, I’m not sure only 25 percent of the country would see that game. That game might have been the kickoff if Tony’s back. . . . Or if Romo went to the Broncos, all of a sudden that Cowboys-Broncos game becomes a whole different animal.”
As it turned out, Romo will be on national television every week as the No. 1 broadcaster on CBS. North said the league doesn’t give any consideration to which broadcasters will work which games when planning the schedule, so Romo was not a factor. But if he were still an active player, he would have been.