By admin 
The dark cloud hovering over CBS’ NFL coverage apparently will remain for the foreseeable future.
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CBS said recently that it has no resolution or announcement about the future of lead analyst Tony Romo, who remains on indefinite leave following his July arrest on suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. But in many ways, the network already has moved on.
By elevating J.J. Watt to the lead team — while Romo twists in the wind — and making several other changes to its broadcast pairings, CBS has signaled that it won’t resolve Romo’s status any time soon.
If Watt is a rousing success alongside Jim Nantz — and Watt showed considerable potential when paired with Ian Eagle last season — it’s difficult to envision CBS bringing back Romo.
If Watt struggles, perhaps CBS could turn back to Romo in a year.
The intriguing subplot is whether CBS will try to void the final four years (and $72 million) of Romo’s regrettable 10-year, $180 million deal by citing a moral clause that is standard in broadcast contracts. Because the specific language in Romo’s contract is unknown, it’s unclear whether CBS could somehow avoid paying him.
If CBS ultimately makes that attempt, Romo assuredly will seek to get paid what he’s still due, barring a negotiated settlement.
Many suspect that CBS is using this incident as a way to try to escape a contract that it had no business giving Romo, even though the former Cowboys quarterback was a rising broadcast star at the time and even though ESPN was pursuing him.
Nobody should be the least bit surprised if that’s true, but there’s also reason to believe CBS Sports president David Berson’s explanation that the decision to place Romo on indefinite leave was intended to shift attention to the games and away from his legal situation.
“We had to consider the impact on our image and on our brand,” Berson said. “That’s very important to us. Whether the games, marketing, PR, social, the focus should and needs to be on our presentation and not on any other factors.”
The image and public relations dynamic became a more serious concern after the body cam footage of Romo’s arrest became public. Though Romo comported himself respectfully with the arresting officer, he performed poorly on a sobriety test.
As he was driving from a golf tournament to his parent’s house in Wisconsin, Romo was pulled over because the vehicle he was driving allegedly crossed the center line and was weaving.
The affidavit said that Romo smelled of “intoxicants,” that he had trouble balancing and that his eyes were bloodshot and glassy.
There were two other problematic issues that likely gave CBS pause:
1). The affidavit said Romo told the officer he had not been drinking. But after refusing to submit to the blood test and preliminary breath test, Romo said that he drank one Corona.
2). The other issue was the discovery of an “open bottle of an alcoholic beverage” in the passenger’s side of Romo’s black Jeep when police analyzed the vehicle before it was towed.
All of that left CBS believing his presence would be a distraction.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen public sentiment turn so dramatically on an announcer. Everybody seemingly loved him when he broke into the business and displayed a knack for predicting plays before they happened.
But in recent years, Romo has been criticized for his preparation, for cutting off Nantz mid-sentence, for fawning over Josh Allen and other quarterbacks and for seeming pollyannish at times. If you listen to Romo, every team he calls is a dangerous Super Bowl threat. He’s blindly optimistic to a fault.
The joyful enthusiasm and playful personality remain, but if social media is any kind of gauge (and it probably isn’t), even that now seems to irritate as many viewers as it entertains. Romo’s “OOOOH! HERE WE GO, JIM! was fun at first; now, it’s a tiresome meme.
Even so, the view here is that the harsh criticism of Romo and Nantz has been excessive among some media critics. Romo isn’t as good as he was when he started, and I sometimes wonder his depth of knowledge about players 15 through 53 on the roster. But his on-air work hasn’t been awful, either.
One person’s misfortune is another’s opportunity, as the proverb goes, and in this case, that opportunity goes to Watt, the former Texans All-Pro defensive lineman and Ross Tucker, a former Princeton offensive linemen who appeared in 42 games over seven seasons and has suddenly risen from sixth to second on CBS’ depth chart.
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The promotion, while surprising to some, isn’t unwarranted. Tucker is smart, alert, critical and personable, and the sense here is that the Ian Eagle-Tucker pairing will be a good one.
In moving up four spots on CBS’ depth chart, Tucker hopscotched Trent Green, who will remain on the third team with Kevin Harlan, and Adam Archuleta, who will remain on the fifth team with Spero Dedes.
Andrew Catalon, CBS’ No. 4 play-by-player, will now be paired with former NFL defensive back Logan Ryan, who replaces Jason McCourty (who signed an exclusive deal with ESPN) and Charles Davis, who’s succeeding Gary Danielson on CBS’ Big 10 package.
Former NFL running back Robert Turbin replaces Tucker alongside Tom McCarthy on the No. 6 team. Former Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly also will work some games.
CBS’ studio show also had major changes, with the additions of former quarterback Russell Wilson and ex-All-Pro offensive lineman Kyle Long and the departure of Matt Ryan, who left to take an executive job with the Atlanta Falcons. James Brown, Nate Burleson and Bill Cowher remain the constants on the pre-game.
While CBS experienced an offseason of tumult and turnover, Fox was the model of stability, returning everyone on its studio team and keeping its top six announcing teams intact: Kevin Burkhardt with the much improved Tom Brady; Joe Davis with impending free agent Greg Olsen; Adam Amin with Drew Brees, who was hired last October; Kenny Albert with Jonathan Vilma; Kevin Kugler with Darryl “Moose” Johnston; and Chris Myers with Mark Schlereth, a tandem that will call the Dolphins’ 4:25 p.m. Sept. 13 opener in Las Vegas while most of the country get Eagles-Commanders instead.
Other changes
The big move for NBC was the studio addition of Mike Tomlin, who has a chance to be a TV star, and the departure of Tony Dungy….
Meanwhile, ESPN — which purchased NFL Network in a deal that gave the NFL a 10% stake in ESPN — will handle production of NFL Network’s seven-game package, including five international games and two late season Saturday games. That means no more Rich Eisen, who was miscast on play-by-play for those games.
Dave Pasch, Kurt Warner and Jason Kelce will do four of those seven games; Bob Wischusen and Louis Riddick will do the other three.
Kelce will continue to appear on “Monday Night Countdown,” alongside Scott Van Pelt, Marcus Spears and new additions Jason McCourty and Pat McAfee, who has become every bit as ubiquitous as Stephen A. Smith. McAfee now hosts a popular midday show on ESPN, appears on “College GameDay” on Saturdays and has added the Monday night pregame to his domain.
McAfee also has expressed interest in hosting an ESPN2 presentation of seven Monday night games that Peyton and Eli Manning aren’t doing as part of their ManningCast.
▪ Beyond the integration of NFL Network talent, ESPN’s other big change was McCourty replacing Ryan Clark on its Monday night pregame show. Clark was a part of ESPN’s latest round of layoffs.
▪ The NFL eliminated overlapping ABC and ESPN Monday night games — there were three sets of them last year — meaning that Joe Buck and Dolphins consultant Troy Aikman will announce every game played on Monday night.
▪ Netflix retained its Christmas doubleheader and added three additional games: Rams-49ers from Australia on Sept. 10, Packers-Rams on the night before Thanksgiving, and a Week 18 Saturday game. NBC’s Noah Eagle and Kuechly will call four of those games.
▪ Peacock will get one exclusive game — a Saturday night matchup in Week 17, following a 4:30 p.m. game on NBC. Those matchups have not been announced.
▪ Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit return to call Amazon’s Thursday night package.
This story was originally published August 24, 2026 at 9:34 AM with the headline “What to know about the Romo fallout at CBS and all the network NFL changes.”
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