The biggest sporting event of the year is on Sunday, with Kansas City and San Francisco facing off in the Super Bowl. Millions of people watching will tune into CBS, ready to listen to play-by-play voice Jim Nantz and color commentator Tony Romo. Not everybody is too thrilled about the broadcast, though.
A caller from The Paul Finebaum Show was discussing some commentators he was not a fan of, calling them “talk, talk, talk announcers.” When Romo came up, the caller wondered if he even takes a break from speaking for a deep breath during the broadcast.
Finebaum himself then chimed in, agreeing with the caller’s assessment.
“I agree with you, I have no idea how Tony Romo is allowed to be on the air,” Finebaum said. “I mean, he clearly does not know what he’s talking about. He used to his first year, but I can’t handle either one of those people (Joe Buck), but that’s just a personal opinion.”
When Romo retired from his playing days with the Dallas Cowboys, his move to the booth was originally well received. Fans from home enjoyed listening to him predict play calls and his enthusiasm matched the intensity of games at times. With CBS calling AFC games, some of his best moments came when Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes faced one another.
Romo’s early success earned him a nice contract back in 2020, signing for 10 years for a total of $180 million. CBS is three years into the deal now and Romo is expected to be on the broadcast for the rest of the decade. At the time, it was celebrated.
Opinions have apparently since changed, as evidenced by the disclosure on Wednesday’s Finebaum episode.
According to a report from Andrew Marchand — formerly of the New York Post and now with The Athletic — CBS had an intervention with Romo heading into the 2022 season. The goal was to make sure he was meshing well with Nantz and fixing some of the issues they were having.
There is no bigger moment in broadcasting than calling a Super Bowl, especially one of this magnitude. Plenty is going to be on the line in Las Vegas and the game is expected to be a close one.
Maybe Finebaum and the caller will be at a Super Bowl party on Sunday and will not have to listen to the broadcast. Or if they’re watching at home, the mute button could be coming out quite early.
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