CBS denies conducting “intervention” to improve Tony Romo’s performance

Posted by Mike Florio on February 2, 2023, 9:21 PM EST
2018 CBS Upfront
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Recently, Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported that CBS conducted an “intervention” with No. 1 NFL analyst Tony Romo during the 2022 offseason, with the goal of trying to improve Romo’s performance.

CBS disputes the terminology used by Marchand.

“To call this an intervention is a complete mischaracterization, we meet regularly with our on-air talent,” CBS Sports spokeswoman Jen Sabatelle told Marchand.

Marchand nevertheless explains that CBS executive “reviewed tapes with Romo, went to dinner and discussed the broadcast in an attempt to return him to the form that made him a media sensation in his first three years on air, beginning in 2017, and culminated in what was at the time the largest contract in sportscasting history, a 10-year deal for a total of $180 million.”

Many would say that the effort didn’t work. Our earlier item took at closer look at the various issues and questions raised by the situation.

And now, with CBS done until the 2023 season, the network will have another chance to intervene or interfere or intersperse or interstellar their way to improving Romo’s performance, if they deem it necessary.

Either way, Romo keeps making $18 million per year.

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38 responses to “CBS denies conducting “intervention” to improve Tony Romo’s performance”

  1. Romo is absolutely horrible. I would rather listen to collinsworth say “now here’s a guy” or the constant fawning over rodgers or mahomes.

  3. It wasn’t an intervention. It was a meeting. But then Romo noticed that a CBS executive had brought a apex dispenser to the meeting. After staring at it for a while and reminiscing about childhood memories, Romo agreed to enter rehab. I mean work on his commentary.

  4. A welcome intervention would be to tell Romo to say at least 50% less, and tell him and Jim Nantz that people tune in for the game – not their bro talk.

  5. Others might disagree, but I find it nuts networks dish out big bucks for their play by play guys and analysts. Good or bad, I find them all to be mostly background noise once the game gets going.

  6. He used to predict what the next play call would be and was pretty accurate. Now he squeals like a girl and trips over himself. It’s weird…

  8. I imagine his Q rating has tanked and CBS doesn’t feel like they are getting their money’s worth.

    This may come as surprise to the networks and streamers that pay millions of dollars to announcers and analysts, but I don’t care who calls a game. I watch for the athletes and teams. I couldn’t tell you who called any of the great games I have watched through my lifetime. To me the best announcers describe the game. I don’t need a nuggets of information after every play. Quality, not quantity of information.

    Tony tries too hard; he has been trying to hard to replicate those first few games on every play and comes off as annoying.

  9. Ridiculous salary. The networks dont want criticisms of the league and have money to burn. Radio announcers are better …

  10. I really liked Romo when he was playing, but even back then I found him to be annoying when he talked to the press. He always tried too hard to be engaging. In the booth, he talks way too much. I like to listen to the broadcast to get some insight, but I can’t stand Romo always trying to jump the play, it takes away from the game. CBS probably overreached with him and then made the mistake of doubling down with his second contract and they should have some buyer’s remorse at this point.

  11. Romo was the best on tv, once upon a time. Make Romo study his first years’ tapes, all 3 of them. If you can get it back great, if not cut him.

  14. It’s weirdly presumptuous to assume or even openly speculate that Romo isn’t putting enough effort in. More likely, the effort just isn’t addressing what it is that is throwing off some people. Frankly, the only thing that gets me is that his cadence can be awkward at times – hopefully he’ll listen to full broadcasts of himself (note: yeesh, that isn’t easy, coming from someone who had to listen to long segments of himself teaching in a classroom…just the sound of my voice was yikes to me, and that’s apparently a common thing), pick that up, and try to tweak it.

  16. It sounded like he was just going through motions. I can do that job for $17 mil a year. And I am more entertaining.

  17. I would rather listen to Romi read War and Peace aloud if it meant I never had to hear Joe Buck again. Especially when he interrupts Troy Aikman to throw his 2 cents in about how to play football.

  18. He’s still wayyyy better than Greg Olson – I have no idea how that guy is calling playoff games

  19. Whatever intervention took place isn’t working. he was completely awful in the AFCCG, and was so overbearing and loud in the final minutes it was an incredible distraction.

  20. Romo was a breath of fresh air in an industry full of old timers ,now his schtick is tiring.. especially when he “predicts” what’s coming and it doesn’t happen, you go from looking like a genius of you are right to looking like an idiot when you are wrong.

  21. Romo does excellent work. There is no issue other than the societal backlash against anything unconventional. We enjoy something until we realize it doesn’t conform to the norms, then suddenly it’s trash. Romo is one of the very few commentators who is perfectly comfortable being himself. He doesn’t strain to be cute or funny or provocative, he doesn’t engaged in inane forced banter. He reacts, he describes, he shares his insights and he does so as Tony Romo, not as the cookie-cutter boilerplate notion of what a commentator is supposed to be.

  23. The problem is that way too many people were upset about Romo calling out what was going to happen. There were cries of “we don’t want to know, we want to be surprised”. In other words, they preferred to remain ignorant. That’s why Tony backed off from his original style. He was too smart for most people.

  24. I use to like Romo, thought he was good and insightful, now he is nothing but a word salad. Sometimes I yell at the TV and scream “shut the heck up”

  26. Romo’s performance definitely tailed off after he got the big $$$ deal. Like Baker Manziel, er, Mayfield, he seemed to spend more time doing commercials than honing his craft. Greg Olsen is now what Romo used to be…an insightful former player who does game prep.

  28. This is what they media does. They pump someone up just to knock them down. Romo was an average announcer in 2017 and an average announcer in 2022. The media turned him into this star when he wasn’t.

  29. Worst analyst on TV … he simply doesnt do the homework necessary. Wasted $180 million.

  31. Should be a pole on how many fans watching and listening to Romo turn their TV volume to zero.

  32. I had noticed a lot of low level static on CBS broadcasts and then finally figured out it was Tony Romo droning on steadily in the background. Not sure what he was saying but then again, it didn’t matter.

  34. He just lost his feel for the game. He’s always predicting things that will happen or need to happen in the game and 9 times out of 10 he’s wrong. Add to that his repeated gushing over 1 team or 1 player is just annoying.

  35. I’d rather have ANYONE but Brady & his squeaky voice. Please Tommy, play another bad yr & spare the airwaves.

  36. All these fools rarely discuss some of the most important things that take place between the sidelines anyway, so what does it matter if they are your A-squad or D-squad team. They’re so often on a tangent about some inconsequential nonsense that they miss half the damn game.

  37. Considering he is making less than half per year of what Fox is going to pay Brady, who has no announcing experience, not a bad deal for CBS. But the salaries for these retired players are crazy.

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