Romo Replacing Simms in CBS Booth: Praise All Gods!!!
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
- Start date
Indeed. Limbaugh was hired to ESPN by Mark Shapiro in hopes of making a splash. It backfired in a predictably terrible way. General Wes Clark and Harold Ford demanded that he be fired for his comments about McNabb and he later was. Only made a few appearances on NFL Countdown. I'm guessing Romo's career will go a little more smoothly.
There's somewhere north of $19MM in dead money they'll spread on the cap over the next two years (would have been the same if they cut him, maybe with different splits) and they could theoretically go after $5MM of his signing bonus to get some cap relief at some point but doubt they do it.
Now that he has secured his release, is there anything to stop Romo from stiffing CBS, signing with Houston and leaving Phil Simms no recourse but to furiously text Jim Nantz from a local Cracker Barrel?
Bonnie Bernstein is kinda pissed:
Bonnie BernsteinVerified account @BonnieBernstein 4h
Tony Romo, w ZERO broadcast experience, reportedly replacing Phil Simms on CBS' #1 NFL game crew. No offense. But that's total crap.
Romo/2 A network's #1 NFL analyst is one of the most coveted positions in all of sports broadcasting. For those of u who think...
Romo/3 "All they do is talk," *live* broadcasting so much harder than you realize! Try, on the fly, sharing cohesive thoughts in 10-15 secs.
Romo/4 I like Tony. As a fan, I hope he'll be a great listen! But I've worked on that crew. And I know how tough that gig is. That's all.
Bonnie BernsteinVerified account @BonnieBernstein 4h
Tony Romo, w ZERO broadcast experience, reportedly replacing Phil Simms on CBS' #1 NFL game crew. No offense. But that's total crap.
Romo/2 A network's #1 NFL analyst is one of the most coveted positions in all of sports broadcasting. For those of u who think...
Romo/3 "All they do is talk," *live* broadcasting so much harder than you realize! Try, on the fly, sharing cohesive thoughts in 10-15 secs.
Romo/4 I like Tony. As a fan, I hope he'll be a great listen! But I've worked on that crew. And I know how tough that gig is. That's all.
As suggested above, if Romo was hired to replace Simms, CBS had him in for a test game either next to Nantz or another broadcaster to get a sense of how he'd be. I think all the "emergency starter" stuff can be shelved, because he can either prepare to succeed in his new job or get ready to play football, and CBS would not give him the top spot unless they were certain he's done playing.
Anybody trading for Romo would be hit with a $14M cap charge for his 2017 salary. And while the acquiring team could restructure, it still would result in the acquiring team taking on a fairly substantial cap hit, as well as giving up whatever set of draft picks that Jerry Jones wanted. That's a lot for a QB that will be 37 with his injury history. Chances are nonzero that a 2017 Romo is a lot, lot worse than the 2014 Romo.
Or, a team needing a veteran QB could simply wait for Dallas to release Romo after June 1st and sign him for a lot less and no draft picks.
I'm confused.
She seems, in the first two tweets, to say he doesn't deserve it because he hasn't paid his dues or something. But in the 3rd and 4th she gives reasons why it's hard, as if CBS wouldn't have made sure he can handle it.
I think she's right. It's hard to do it well. And few do it. That's why so many of them add so little to the broadcast.
The job does require a particular skill. Maybe he has it; maybe not. But most of them suck catastrophically, so the bar for immediately being the world's second or third tallest midget isn't that high. CBS has no clue whether "he can handle it." What possibly makes anyone think that CBS gives one micro-shit about how "well" he can do this. This is 95% PR ("We got Romo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"), 4% "I'll only come to your network if you give me the #1 spot" and 1% "I guess he'll be OK. He doesn't swear too much and Jim Nantz likes him because he plays golf." The networks give us Steakhead Row at halftime to scream banalities at each other.
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You think they have "no clue"? Like there's no sorting mechanism or testing they can do besides have him show up and keep their fingers crossed?
Her point is this is kind of bonkers decision considering how hard the job is and how little experience he has, but then wishes him well.
Very few players go right from the the playing field right to the top network analyst position in one move.
Maybe that's the "total crap" reference. And why she got out of the game-day end of things.
Who is on the bench at CBS that is getting unfairly bypassed by Romo taking the gig?
Dan Fouts
Trent Green
Rich Gannon
Solomon Wilcots
The bar currently set by Simms is ultra low. If Romo can remember which teams are playing and not curse, he will be a passable upgrade.
Dan Fouts
Trent Green
Rich Gannon
Solomon Wilcots
The bar currently set by Simms is ultra low. If Romo can remember which teams are playing and not curse, he will be a passable upgrade.
Simms hasn't played in the NFL since Kurt Cobain was alive. I'm sure CBS is ready for a fresh perspective and I doubt it will take Romo long to get comfortable. He already knows all the rules, terminology, most of the players, etc. All he'll really need to do is practice the on air timing. If he puts forth any kind of effort, he'll be great at this.
Collinsworth retired before Simms. I don't think that has much to do with their respective abilities.
Most announcers seem to be hated, but Simms was definitely the worst, IMO. Early in his broadcasting career, he was calling a Raider/Jets game and claimed that one of Rich Gannon's passes "fluttered in the air and stayed up longer than normal because of the pouring rain." I couldn't stop laughing, and I still think of that comment every time he does a game.
Not sure how Romo will be, but good riddance, Simms.
No, but Romo can offer a different kind of analysis and perspective since his playing days are more recent. There's a reason why these networks keep going after these recently-retired guys.
OK, but given that Murderers' Row of color analysts that CBS assembled that was posted above, it's hard to think they know what they're doing.
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His agent is already making "Phil has many years left on his contract" noises.
Tony Gonzalez is leaving the CBS pregame show; maybe a spot for Simms there
If it's as easy as you seem to think it is, Simms would still be there.
Some people seem to think that because there are a lot of people who do this job poorly then it must be easy – it actually means exactly the opposite. I actually think Romo is likely to fall down on his face doing this because CBS are putting him in the #1 slot where he is going to be facing tons of pressure and probably some Bernstein-esque resentment because he has no experience. Even the best ones at this took a long time before they got that way.
As for Simms, now he's going from being the #1 color guy and host of Inside the NFL to being completely unemployed. I didn't really care for him either anymore but that's rough.
This whole thing makes so little sense it must be some weird backroom deal cut by some rando CBS executive and Jerry Jones.
Edit: Assuming Simms isn't bumped to the studio where his old partner Greg Gumbel was sent.
I remember really liking Simms in the early 2000s. He's fallen really far IMO. Too bad because he was pretty good back in the day.
It's the rare analyst who doesn't stay too long. People forget how good Tim McCarver was when he started out, or how good Ken Harrelson was in the Red Sox booth
Fair enough, but just for one season. Then he went back to the booth as the No. 2 announcer
Bill Simmons and Cousin Sal have been talking about Romo doing tv for so long that I was not shocked by the news. However, I heard Mike F on the fan today and he was holding back but doesn't seem to love it and the callers were going absolutely nuts. I was surprised people cared that much but they did not like the idea of a greenhorn taking Simms job.
In a way you just proved Bonnie's points.
A) It's a harder job to do well then you think.
B) And more obviously in this case, network execs are generally and genuinely TERRIFIED of making changes to these positions because an obvious failure can cost you your job. That they are doing so eagerly and boldly in this case proves that Romo is a big enough name to protect them from such a firing if it doesn't work out and that his Q rating his high enough for him to be allowed to learn on the job.
Dallas Cowboys QB's who look good on camera have a strong brand and Romo is cashing in on that brand in a way that other ex-athletes can only dream about doing.
Thx, DD. Actually to t4w's point, most of Simms' best work was with Gumbel before he switched gigs with Nantz. Believe they did the Snow Bowl together IIRC.
The real loser here are the shareholders of Kohl's. Down 3.75% today on the news that Simms has been canned.
Huh? I never said it was easy. I do think that Romo might have a natural ability and clearly CBS does too.
I was listening to Francesa as well and IMO the "outrage" by his callers was more Giant fans showing love for Simms. Many of them talked of him as still possesing a fastball that he hasn't thrown in years..
It's worse than that, $19.7M due to the restructuring; Dallas only keeps the $5M signing bonus proration either way. And along with the rest of what you say, that's a very good reason why nobody would possibly see trading for him under his current contract as a good idea.
What I'm talking about is why nobody did the bolded (or why Dallas, in service of a player who'd served them enormously well, didn't cut him as a post-june-1st before today, and let him make his own destination).
First I'll confess that I of course have no proof, but it still smells. Collusion would here be between Jerry Jones and the other owners to make it clear to Romo that they wouldn't sign him even if he were a FA. Bob McNair and Pat Bowlen (and maybe Jed York, or McCaskey, or Woody god help us, or or) must have wanted some favors from Jerrah more than they wanted Tony Romo doing a Montana-in-KC impression.
Put on this here tinfoil hat with me, and consider the evolution of L'Affaire Romo over the past few months:
- December: Romo comes into a live NFL game and shows everyone that he's still healthy
- March 8th: Schefter reports Cowboys are releasing Romo on the 10th. SoSH assumes it's out of respect for Romo and dubs it classy. Suckers that we were.
- March 9th: Romo posts "So long and thanks for all the fish" rambling monologue of gratitude. Rumors begin that he may be traded. Houston dumps Osweiler, has to include majority ownership in ExxonMobil to find a taker.
- March 18th: Florio reports that Jones wants to keep Romo from playing in Houston, supposedly out of spite, and that Romo was "only told he won't be on the roster in 2017".
- March 24th: Fox and CBS reportedly pursuing Romo for broadcast team. E5 says Dallas would prefer this "for cap implications".
- March 27th: Rapoport tweets that the Romo saga "isn't ending anytime soon", could extend past the draft. Bosoxen muses that Dallas has nothing to gain by releasing him at this point, should keep him for trades after training camp injuries.
- March 28th: During an interview at Owners Meetings, Jerry Jones quoted as saying the deadline on a Romo decision is "training camp". Claims he and Romo are "completely satisfied" with the other's actions.
- March 28th: "Insider" Jason La Canfora reports that Romo "would absolutely love to play" in Houston and they've "been a coveted destination for him all along". Puts it at 70/30 that he plays football this season.
- March 29th: Florio reports CBS planning to defenestrate Simms, install Romo on #1 broadcast team, making it "harder for Romo to pull a Roger Clemens and return to the field during the season"
- April 3rd: Garofalo et al report that (in a bizarre and unprecedented move) Jones sent a memo to the other 31 teams inviting them to talk to Romo about a trade, but not anything else! Or else, uh, he'll tickle you!
- April 4th: Schefter reports Romo is retiring and taking over for Simms in the CBS booth.
Alternative scenario:
- Romo: "I'd like to play, and in calling around, the Texans said they'd be happy to have me at [say, $10M]".
- Jones: "I've called in some favors. CBS is offering you a great contract to go talk about football, avoid further concussions, and stay marketable."
- Romo: "Well, I'm worth a lot more on the field, and as long as I'm a starter, my value once retired isn't going down."
- Jones: "You can take the CBS offer and we all say wonderful things about each other on the way out, and we celebrate your career here in Dallas, and you magically find doors opened to you in the future. Or you can force my hand, go to my sworn enemy, sure you'll make a few more bucks in the short term, but then we're at war. You'll cost yourself way more in the long run."
So male football fans will be tuning in to see Romo's pretty face every Sunday?