Jim Nantz finally addressed the Tony Romo situation out loud, and he did it without burning a single bridge.
Speaking with reporters at CBS Sports’ annual NFL Media Day on Tuesday, Nantz confirmed he wasn’t looped in on the network’s decision-making regarding his longtime broadcast partner, who has been on indefinite leave since late July following an OWI arrest in Milwaukee. According to Awful Announcing, Nantz said he “was just laying low” during the process, focused instead on a packed golf broadcasting schedule.
What he didn’t stay quiet on was his loyalty to Romo.
“Tony is a great friend of mine and has been for years,” Nantz said, per Awful Announcing. “He and I go back to 2011 when he got married; I was invited to his wedding. So, this was not someone in 2017 when he entered the booth I was just getting to know for the first time. So he’s a great friend, continues to be, always will be.”
Nantz kept the details of his private conversations with Romo exactly that — private. “I adore his family; his wife is awesome. They’re the ones that are on my mind right now,” he said. “The contents of what we talked about, I’m just going to leave that private, and I think that’s the only way and the appropriate way for me to look at it.”
What led to Romo’s leave from CBS
Romo was pulled over on Interstate 43 in Milwaukee on July 23 after a deputy observed signs of impairment, according to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. He was cited for first-offense OWI, an unsafe passing violation, and having an open container in his vehicle, and he declined a breathalyzer test. Wisconsin classifies a first-offense OWI as a civil violation rather than a criminal charge.
CBS didn’t act immediately. The network waited until July 31 — eight days after the arrest, and shortly after body camera footage of the stop became public — before issuing a statement placing Romo on leave “until further notice.” That delay, and the footage that preceded it, appear to have shaped the network’s next move.
CBS Sports president David Berson addressed the situation directly at Tuesday’s press conference, according to Yahoo Sports. “We have to consider the impact on our image and our brand,” Berson said. “That’s very important to us. The focus should be and needs to be on our presentation and this great product.” He added that Romo’s situation remains fluid: “It’s an evolving situation and we are still assessing. There is no timetable or final decision at this time.”
Romo’s status is unresolved, but the reporting environment around him has shifted. John Ourand of Puck has written that the consensus among sports media executives is that Romo has likely worked his last game for CBS, with the network expected to lean on the morals clause in Romo’s $180 million contract to part ways — a deal that reportedly still owes him $72 million over four seasons.
J.J. Watt steps into the No. 1 booth
With Romo out, J.J. Watt has moved up from the network’s No. 2 analyst chair to pair with Nantz and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson on the top NFL broadcast team. Nantz didn’t hold back on his new partner.
“He is a very, very talented communicator,” Nantz said of Watt, per Awful Announcing. “When you win the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, and you win the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Award, which impresses me way more than anything he’s done in his legendary first-ballot Hall of Fame football career, that tells you that the man knows about leadership and he knows how to not only lead people, he knows how to deliver a message.”
Watt, for his part, said he learned about the opportunity roughly ten days before it became public. “It’s certainly not the circumstances you want something like this to happen under, but it’s an incredible opportunity, and I’m extremely excited about it,” Watt told Awful Announcing. He and Nantz have already run a mock broadcast together, calling a game from last season to build chemistry ahead of Week 1.
The reshuffling doesn’t stop at the top. Watt’s former broadcast partner, Ian Eagle, has a new analyst of his own in Ross Tucker, who will call games alongside Eagle and Evan Washburn as part of the new booths CBS has assembled for 2026. Eagle and Tucker already share history from years of radio work together on Westwood One.
| Broadcast Team | Play-by-Play | Analyst | Sideline |
|---|---|---|---|
| No. 1 (2026, so far) | Jim Nantz | J.J. Watt | Tracy Wolfson |
| No. 2 (2026) | Ian Eagle | Ross Tucker | Evan Washburn |
| No. 1 (through 2025) | Jim Nantz | Tony Romo | Tracy Wolfson |
Nantz and Watt are set to open the season in Minnesota, where the Vikings host the Green Bay Packers. Eagle and Tucker head to Houston for Week 1, calling the Texans’ matchup against the Buffalo Bills on Sept. 13.
Where things stand
Romo has been CBS’s top NFL analyst since joining the network in 2017 after retiring from the Dallas Cowboys, working alongside Nantz for what would have been a tenth season together in 2026. Whether he ever returns to that chair is still an open question — one CBS says it isn’t ready to answer yet.
