When Tony Romo signed his 10-year, $180 million contract back in 2020, the initial takeaways were focused on the money. Now, six years later, Romo’s contract has come under heavy scrutiny after the CBS Sports NFL analyst was arrested for an ‘OWI.’
Some have suggested Romo’s contract could end up being the “worst contract in media history.” Amidst all that noise, FS1’s Colin Cowherd is pulling to the front of the line in adding more wood to the fire pit.
Cowherd Believes CBS ‘Resents’ Tony Romo
Back when Romo’s camp initially negotiated his terms with CBS, he was viewed as a highly sought-after NFL analyst who brought a refreshing point of view to broadcasts on a weekly basis. That’s what helped him become the highest-paid NFL analyst in TV history at the time.
He had all the leverage. But ever since, Romo has come under scrutiny.
Count Cowherd as one of Romo’s skeptics. He recently joined Ethan Strauss on the ‘House of Strauss’ podcast, where he said Romo “squeezed them for every nickel,” referring to CBS.
“When you go into contract negotiations, there was a moment in time that Tony Romo had tremendous leverage over CBS,” Cowherd said. “And he squeezed them for every nickel.”
From the moment he signed his contract, Cowherd feels CBS executives have felt “resentment” toward Romo.
“Even if you have leverage, it will create resentment somewhere upstairs,” Cowherd insisted.
“And I’ve always thought with the CBS execs, they don’t defend him quite as quickly. Or, when this recent story came out, reportedly, for the first two days nobody from CBS contacted him. That’s what I heard from somebody who would know. And I thought, is there resentment upstairs? Because he had them. He had them dead to rights, and he got every penny he wanted.”
Romo’s contract, being such a high-dollar employee, reportedly made executives at CBS “uncomfortable.” Then came the reports about Romo having to have an ‘intervention’ with his bosses at CBS.
“It made executives uncomfortable,” Cowherd told Strauss. “There were a lot of questions. They had to take calls. There’s a very well-documented trip by Sean McManus down to Dallas to talk to Romo… I find the Tony Romo dynamic with CBS fascinating.”
Ultimately, Cowherd makes it clear that there’s been tension between Romo and CBS Sports for a while now.
Now that Romo has some extra baggage, it could provide the network with an easy excuse to wash their hands of the former Dallas Cowboys QB.
For now, Romo has been placed on leave, with J.J. Watt set to serve as his replacement. Whether that’s more of a temporary fill-in or a possible long-term replacement remains to be seen.
