CBS' Tony Romo focused on improving amid criticisms

CBS lead NFL analyst Tony Romo is focused on improving amid criticisms that hovered over his work throughout the 2022 NFL season. 

"I just think it’s enjoyable to try and be the best you can be, and the only way to do that is sometimes to trial and error, and staying inside the umbrella of what you think that the viewer wants to help them enjoy the show," Romo told Jenna Lemoncelli of the New York Post for a piece published Wednesday. "You don’t always get it right, but I do think more often than not, just the people that come up to you all the time. I mean, it’s quadruple from my first two-to-three years of how many people come up to me on the street and want to talk about it and how they loved it and stuff. So it’s really rewarding for that." 

Romo spent his entire playing career serving as a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys and then became a countrywide sensation almost immediately after he jumped into the broadcast booth for the 2017 campaign. As Jimmy Traina noted for Sports Illustrated, Romo was widely praised for his call of the 2019 AFC Championship Game between the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs. 

However, Lemoncelli, Ben Koo of Awful Announcing, Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, and Garrett Searight of the Barrett Sports Media website are among those who mentioned that fans roasted Romo during the broadcast of this past Sunday's conference title contest involving the Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals. Per Barrett Sports Media, Ken Carman of Cleveland's 92.3 The Fan recently questioned how much time Romo spends preparing for games ahead of assignments. 

Those who'd like to hear a little less excitement and a little more "Romostradamus" from the CBS analyst may remain disappointed next fall. 

"I just love showing the emotion of that, the fans and just letting them know how big this is to these players, to these coaches," Romo told Lemoncelli. "It’s life-changing for a lot of people. … I just think it’s really enjoyable to kind of share some of that emotion with people." 

Fox No. 1 analyst Greg Olsen has become a flavor-of-the-week favorite for pockets of NFL viewers, and retired quarterback Tom Brady may enter the Fox Sports broadcast booth as soon as this coming September. One wonders if CBS will eventually regret signing Romo to a 10-year contract back in 2020 that reportedly pays him $17.5 million per season.