CBS Allegedly Attempted An "Intervention" With Tony Romo Before This Season In Hopes To Stop The Bleeding Of The Public Criticism. Sadly, It Didn't Appear To Work

Dante2/03/2023 2:40 PM

Pro Football Talk - Although the top games on CBS and FOX draw major audiences during the regular season, the numbers grow — and the attention spikes — in the playoffs. So does the scrutiny of the people calling the games for those networks.
This year, Greg Olsen of Fox is up. And Tony Romo of CBS is down. The former Cowboys quarterback, who burst onto the scene in 2017 as a breath of fresh air, has quickly assumed the aroma of rotting rock bass, based on the instant assessments made during every game on social media by fans and pundits alike.
Romo has taken repeated body blows in the aftermath of Sunday’s AFC Championship. Andrew Marchand of the New York Post said on his podcast with John Ourand of Sports Business Journal that CBS has been aware of Romo’s slippage.
Specifically, Marchand said that CBS attempted an “intervention ” with Romo during the 2022 offseason, but that things “did not get better.”
“There’s kind of a fine line between unconventional and undisciplined,” Marchand said on the podcast.
It’s unclear what has happened with Romo, who was given a curve-shattering, 10-year, $180 million contract by CBS in 2020. Is he not working as hard to prepare? Is he less familiar with the players and coaches, now that he has been out of the league for six full seasons? Is he less curious than he should be about the details and nuances of the game he’s about to call?
Or have the tastes of the general public changed? Has Romo’s routine simply gotten stale?

Not to suck my own dick or anything, but let's throw it back to a certain blogger's blog from a few months ago shall we?

Dick Ebersol alluded to it then in October, a little more than a month into the season, that it seemed like Tony's heart just wasn't in it anymore in the booth. And it appears he was right.

And it appears it was a concern well before the season even kicked off if (checks notes), Andrew Marchand's report is in fact true.

This changes everything for me.

I never understood the frenzy over Romo in the booth when he first came on the scene a few years ago. Sure, he pointed out formations, what the QB's were seeing at the line then adjusting to, and he was right a lot of the time. Cool. What else did he bring to the table besides that? He was a one-trick pony. And it appears now that's faded and people are over it. Like everything nowadays, all it takes is a little time for your biggest fans to turn on you.

But this report, combined with everybody getting their panties in a bunch over his call this past Sunday in the AFC title game,

has me on Team Romo now. Fuck the haters.

Not to be a contrarian just for the sake of being a contrarian, but one of my favorite quotes ever, from one of my favorite people ever, Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain:

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

What do you people want from the guy?

I'm not sure if you paid attention this season, but that was one of the worst displays of football, league-wide, these eyes have ever seen.

To quote the great Howard Cosell, "the commissioner wants you to believe it's parity, when in fact it's mediocrity."

As if the level of play wasn't bad enough, the horrendous rule changes, legislating the game down to glorified flag football, combined with the ATROCIOUS officiating, seemingly in every single contest, every week, resulted in one of the worst products in recent memory.

How are Romo, or any of his associates, supposed to get fired up and excited for that crap? Especially the guys like him, who played the game at a decently high level.

(Sidebar - everybody couldn't wait to pile on Al Michaels for his call in that Chargers Jaguars Thursday Night game a few weeks ago. But same scenario. Michaels openly admitted calling the Thursday Night Games on Amazon this season were fucking excruciating. Plus, you can add Tony Dungy to anything wild or exciting, you name it, like a coke-fueled orgy for example, and he'd turn it into a snooze fest library session. The guy is blander than drywall. And the product sucks.)

(Sidebar again - one day the league will wise up, listen to me, and do away with Thursday Night Games and add a 2nd Monday Night Game to the slate. One day.)

So back to Romo.

The guy has made more money than he knows what to do with.

His heart is in competing, not watching other guys compete, (at a subpar level), and trying to make it sound exciting or overly fascinating to us the viewers.

Sure, maybe he has been mailing in his research during the week, showing up on Sunday unprepared. Maybe he can't stand Jim Nantz's fuckin guts and loathes having to pretend they love each other for 4 hours every Sunday afternoon? Who knows. All I know is there's bigger fish to worry about, who are much worse at their job.

Gary Gershoff. Getty Images.

So who's the new fan favorite media darling? Greg with The Third Leg baby!

SBJ- Marchand: “There’s kind of a fine line between unconventional and undisciplined.” Marchand and SBJ’s John Ourand were enthusiastic about Fox announcing duo Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen. Ourand: “I actually spent Sunday in Philadelphia behind the scenes with that whole crew. What I can tell you is that … what Romo had a couple of years ago, Olsen seems to have right now.”

Enjoy it while it lasts Greg. They'll be tearing you down in a couple seasons too.

p.s. - also from that October blog -