Tony Romo: A Place for Ribbing & Word Salad

Van Everyman

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In the two years since Romo got a record-setting $18M/year 10-year contract extension, he has taken a nosedive – going from being a boy wonder broadcaster who could predict plays to being almost unlistenable at times.

According to Andrew Marchand on the SBJ podcast, CBS conducted an “intervention” with Romo this past offseason – and that his relationship with Nantz might be a little rocky.

Romo himself had this lucid analysis of his broadcasting career:

“I think you’re always evolving,” Romo told The Post on behalf of Michelob ULTRA and Netflix, which teamed up for a first-ever partnership to launch Netflix’s newest golf docuseries “Full Swing.” “I mean, some changes are good, some you’re like, ‘Ah, I shouldn’t do that. But I always trial and error a bunch and sometimes it works.

“I mean, the ability to adapt and learn, if you never try to change at all — I just think like the best players in the world aren’t afraid of failure. You’re going to fail all the time, but at the same time, you succeed because of that, as long as you think about it and try to understand how to improve and then go about the process to make that happen, which is work ethic and commitment. But you got to have a plan for it before.”
What say SoSH about this man of many, many words?
 

Petagine in a Bottle

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I don’t think any of it really matters, it has almost zero impact on whether people will watch a game or not. I’m not a huge Romo fan but he wasn’t as good as people thought he was a few years ago or as bad as people claim now. I think he’s fine; he’s fairly likeable, it’s clear he has a passion for the game, he gets overly excited at times and says some things that don’t always make a ton of sense, but it could be worse. I’ll take him over the smug arrogance of Chris Collnsworth any day.
 

glennhoffmania

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It's asinine that CBS is paying anyone 18m per year to announce 20 football games, but the fact that this clown got that deal makes it even worse. He ruins games. I didn't love him when he first started out but I didn't dislike him. Now I dread games that he does because he's so terrible. I'm always amazed at how bad in general the quality of NFL announcers is, but somehow Romo manages to distinguish himself from a group that's, at best, mediocre.

18m per year. Christ.
 

Looch

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Yeah, it’s weird to me that the masses seem to think he has quickly traversed from a breath of fresh air and amazing insight to tiresome, clueless cheerleading. Specific examples and probably unattainable data would help, but I don’t get why people think he has gone from great to terrible.
 

glennhoffmania

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I’ll take him over the smug arrogance of Chris Collnsworth any day.
I couldn't disagree more. Sure, Collinsworth can be smug. But he's also well-spoken and generally knows what he's talking about. He doesn't scream into the microphone. He doesn't need to fill every second with commentary no matter how inane. He doesn't constantly make incorrect predictions, nor does he think it's his job to predict every play. He doesn't talk a mile a minute and by the second quarter he doesn't sound like he just got home from a loud concert during during which he screamed the whole time. Collinsworth is generally harmless. Romo makes games less enjoyable.
 

Dahabenzapple2

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Compared to Greg Olsen, he’s prime John Madden

Olsen is the worst ever, even more horrible than Moose Johnston
 

glennhoffmania

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Yeah, it’s weird to me that the masses seem to think he has quickly traversed from a breath of fresh air and amazing insight to tiresome, clueless cheerleading. Specific examples and probably unattainable data would help, but I don’t get why people think he has gone from great to terrible.
My theory was that he had some humility his first couple of years, but when everyone starting talking about how incredible he was in the booth it went to his head. Now he talks more loudly, is more arrogant (even though he's wrong more often), and thinks people want to hear him fill every second with his expert analysis. I've definitely noticed a difference in his style.
 

joe dokes

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I thought he was overrated at the start. Way too much time predicting; not enough time analyzing what happened. He's been awful lately. Just a human bag of magnetic words tossed at the fridge to form neither thoughts nor sentences, except by happenstance.

The money is nuts. If it's a good/great matchup, people will watch if my wife and I are calling the game.
OTOH..(and even though I don't watch 5 seconds of the talking heads), if I squint, I can see a good reason to pay one those talking heads lots of money, because they're the stars of those shows and might make a viewership difference. But for the game? The stars are on the field.
 

jayhoz

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I'm not sure it's worth $18M per year, but his ability to call a game with Mahome's manhood in his mouth the entire 60 minutes seems unique.
 

EvilEmpire

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He talks too much sometimes, but I don't mind Romo at all and I mostly appreciate the enthusiasm.

I don't care for Nantz at all though.

I do think their on air chemistry has gotten worse over time and recognize that it is probably Romo's fault. But Nantz still sucks.
 
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Ferm Sheller

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It's asinine that CBS is paying anyone 18m per year to announce 20 football games, but the fact that this clown got that deal makes it even worse. He ruins games. I didn't love him when he first started out but I didn't dislike him. Now I dread games that he does because he's so terrible. I'm always amazed at how bad in general the quality of NFL announcers is, but somehow Romo manages to distinguish himself from a group that's, at best, mediocre.

18m per year. Christ.
I grew up listening to Beasly Reece (cuz the Pats sucked and he was always the color guy for the bottom tier broadcast pairing and so he seemingly always called Pats games). He only made about $180 a year, I'm sure, but he was really awful and way worse than Romo.
 

luckiestman

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I grew up listening to Beasly Reece (cuz the Pats sucked and he was always the color guy for the bottom tier broadcast pairing and so he seemingly always called Pats games). He only made about $180 a year, I'm sure, but he was really awful and way worse than Romo.
You have to really suck to ruin a game for me and Nantz and Romo are not close.
 

jcd0805

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I couldn't disagree more. Sure, Collinsworth can be smug. But he's also well-spoken and generally knows what he's talking about. He doesn't scream into the microphone. He doesn't need to fill every second with commentary no matter how inane. He doesn't constantly make incorrect predictions, nor does he think it's his job to predict every play. He doesn't talk a mile a minute and by the second quarter he doesn't sound like he just got home from a loud concert during during which he screamed the whole time. Collinsworth is generally harmless. Romo makes games less enjoyable.
Agree completely.
 

luckiestman

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Forum kicked my post when I tried to cut/paste all the broadcast pairings. I think Myers is the worst right now and I think he is diminished because he used to be a good listen (maybe not on pbp).

I think most are worse than Nantz/Romo. Kevin Harlan gets a lot wrong. Ian Eagles voice is pretty good.

I am pro Olsen.

Buck/Aikman is the best. I loved Al and Chris but NBC fucked it up.

Tess and the TE were truly mutable and psycho steve wasn’t much better the next year. Took a while but MNF turned it around.
 

8slim

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I liked Romo in his first year because of his genuine enthusiasm for the game. The guessing plays stuff wasn’t a big deal to me.

He’s gotten worse every year and now I can’t stand him. I don’t ever mute a game, because I need to hear crowd noise and the general ambiance of a stadium. But if CBS offered any kind of alternate audio I’d do that in a heartbeat.

In short, he sucks.
 

Marciano490

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Romo is like the annoying guy you watch a game with, but at least he’s at the table with you. Collinsworth, Nantz and them - I wouldn’t even wanna be around them to be annoyed.
 

Spelunker

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I find it wild that people get worked up about people that call national games. They barely matter.
 

johnmd20

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One day you're hot. Then you're not.

Romo is ok, I do like the enthusiasm but it's a brutal booth no matter what because Jim Nantz is terrible. When will America realize Jim Nantz is awful? The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist.

Point being, Romo is fine but he's paired with sarin gas. And it's hard to survive when you're exposed to sarin.
 

NortheasternPJ

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I hated him from the start and I actually thought he was got way better at the start of this year. He seemed to calm down a bit and was tolerable. The second half of the year he seemed to say fuck it. I’m going to be myself and went back to awful. He was brutal in the Pats Bills game and last week was the worst announcing game I’ve ever heard. As said above, he was all over the Chiefs balls all game and everything KC did was the greatest in history and he seemed disappointed anytime Burrow did anything.

Romos turned into the butt if the joke and needs to go.
 

joe dokes

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I find it wild that people get worked up about people that call national games. They barely matter.
They only matter in the same way that it matters if the guy sitting next to you at the game is a drunk loudmouth puking on your shoes. "But it was a great game" might not suffice.
 

kenneycb

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I’m stealing Bryan Curtis’s take in that Romo is usually good in a close game but can be too enthusiastic the entire game instead of moderating his highs and lows. He struggles to make blowouts interesting in a way Aikman or Collinsworth does.

That said he is far away from sucking.
 

j44thor

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This: so good that there’s angst about him being upstaged by Brady, and calls for a three-man booth.
Yeah I don't understand the Olsen hate at all. He seems to take the job seriously and does his homework and becomes part of the overall broadcast.

I seem to be in the minority on Romo as I did appreciate his insider knowledge at the start of the career and the fact he was still seeing the field like a QB gave him an unfair advantage over other announcers in that he was able to diagnose plays in real time if not before they would happen. Unfortunately that skill gave him cover to suck at the rest of the job and that skill seems to have faded as offensives have evolved but he didn't bother to put in any work and instead became a sports talk caller announcing with nothing by hyperbole and zero substance. When everything is a game saving play in the 2nd Q, nothing is a game saving play.
 

PC Drunken Friar

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My issue with Romo is he is so immature in calling big games. He will do the same thing 4 times a game. So version of (when Mahomes or Josh Allen make a great play)...Hey Jim, you think this guy is going to make it in this league? Hey Jim, this guy is pretty decent isn't he?

Every single game.
 

Dahabenzapple2

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I’m shocked all you learned dudes like Olsen’s non-stop talk. Yes they all talk too much but he talks so much and so fast I stop listening by the middle of the first quarter. Yes he knows all the stuff but he says SO much he states the obvious and it’s a non stop lecture to my ears. YMMV I suppose.

I like Romo, fwiw
 

BigJimEd

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Romo is the only announcer that I mute. Rambles on about nothing and repeats himself constantly often making little to no sense.

Just takes away from the game and find him distracting and irritating. Within a quarter he's muted or channel changed.
 

8slim

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I find it wild that people get worked up about people that call national games. They barely matter.
Matter how?

In terms of ratings? No they don't really matter. That's almost entirely determined by teams involved, the importance of the game, and the score.

In terms of "big time feel"? Yeah, they matter a bit. That's why Monday Night Football is now Buck & Aikman. The NFL was sick of that window sounding small time.

In terms of viewer enjoyment? Matters quite a lot. There is a lot of research conducted about on air talent, and how viewers react to them. It's rare to have someone who is universally beloved, ala John Madden. Usually the highest-profile ones are polarizing. But a network would rather have that than someone who is barely noticed. Thus, Romo.
 

Bowhemian

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ahhhhhhhhhhhh I don't know Jim....this could be overturned

edited to add: Romo sucks, and I have always thought that he sucks. Even when he played football.
 
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cshea

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Olsen is by far the worst. I'd listen to Dierdorf or Fouts again over him. Brady can't get in there soon enough.
 

Philip Jeff Frye

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I've never cared for Romo, but in addition to the word salad and goofy enthusiasm, I'm amazed at the number of times he's just wrong. He'll be like, "Ooooh, the QB had that receiver open for a TD if he just saw him!" and the reply will show double coverage on the guy.
 

johnnywayback

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Announcers are like airlines -- you can find lots of people to swear that any given one is the VERY WORST. I find they're all basically fine.
 

DJnVa

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Romo seems to not take stands or be overly critical. When a challenge flag comes out in one of his games it becomes comical "Oh...oooo...ewwww...I don't know...I think they might leave it the way they called it..." COMMERCIAL BREAK, WE RETURN TO CALL BEING OVERTURNED "yeah, that's kinda how we saw that in real time..."

But, at the end of the day, I really don't care all that much about any of them and usually end up muting them then if there's an important replay, unmuting.
 

Mooch

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The thing I'm looking for with an ex player in the booth is to break down what's happening in real time from the perspective of someone who has analyzed film and can diagnose what is happening or just took place. Romo was GREAT at this the first year. Take away the "play predicting" which was always overblown to me. Walk me through a replay with a telestrator and explain the intricacies of the line play or the route or the defensive back technique, etc.... Broaden the viewers understanding of the same. Romo doesn't do that nearly as effectively as he did his first season. Now Olsen on the other hand took a big leap forward this season in that regard. I think he's actually pretty good, if a little bit dull in his presentation.

What I DON'T need is a cheerleader in the both, aka Collinsworth. He's useless.

EDIT: I still don't understand why there aren't more ex coaches doing color. Could you imagine watching a game in real time with Belichick? There's a reason why Madden was the very best, and it wasn't just "BOOM!"
 

8slim

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I don't know how some of you can watch a game on mute. To me, a huge part of sports is the noise of the game and the crowd. There aren't too many announcers I find truly annoying (Romo being the only one who comes to mind at the moment) but I couldn't mute the broadcast because I'd much rather endure the annoyance than miss the sound of the stadium/park/arena.
 

CoffeeNerdness

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He's always been terrible. The predicting plays crap was a cheap parlor trick using insider info he took from watching practices firsthand and IMO was clearly told to knock it off by the perpetually paranoid NFL.

It's fun to think he and Nantz don't get along. I wonder if he's Machiavellian enough to get him ousted... hmm.
 

Kliq

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Romo's issue is that he is just too reactive to stuff. Anytime something moderately important happens he acts very excited, and that gets very annoying quickly (especially if it is a play happening against your team).
 

joe dokes

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The thing I'm looking for with an ex player in the booth is to break down what's happening in real time from the perspective of someone who has analyzed film and can diagnose what is happening or just took place. Romo was GREAT at this the first year. Take away the "play predicting" which was always overblown to me. Walk me through a replay with a telestrator and explain the intricacies of the line play or the route or the defensive back technique, etc.... Broaden the viewers understanding of the same. Romo doesn't do that nearly as effectively as he did his first season. Now Olsen on the other hand took a big leap forward this season in that regard. I think he's actually pretty good, if a little bit dull in his presentation.

What I DON'T need is a cheerleader in the both, aka Collinsworth. He's useless.

EDIT: I still don't understand why there aren't more ex coaches doing color. Could you imagine watching a game in real time with Belichick? There's a reason why Madden was the very best, and it wasn't just "BOOM!"
He's always been terrible. The predicting plays crap was a cheap parlor trick using insider info he took from watching practices firsthand and IMO was clearly told to knock it off by the perpetually paranoid NFL.
The predicting was amusing, but I tired of it because I never thought Romo did *anything* useful *after* the play. He was too busy basking in the right-ness of the prediction. (Enabled to a large degree by Nantz early on).
Collinsworth can be cheerleader-ish or preachy, but he does try to impart substance.
 

Was (Not Wasdin)

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The thing I'm looking for with an ex player in the booth is to break down what's happening in real time from the perspective of someone who has analyzed film and can diagnose what is happening or just took place. Romo was GREAT at this the first year. Take away the "play predicting" which was always overblown to me. Walk me through a replay with a telestrator and explain the intricacies of the line play or the route or the defensive back technique, etc.... Broaden the viewers understanding of the same. Romo doesn't do that nearly as effectively as he did his first season. Now Olsen on the other hand took a big leap forward this season in that regard. I think he's actually pretty good, if a little bit dull in his presentation.

What I DON'T need is a cheerleader in the both, aka Collinsworth. He's useless.

EDIT: I still don't understand why there aren't more ex coaches doing color. Could you imagine watching a game in real time with Belichick? There's a reason why Madden was the very best, and it wasn't just "BOOM!"
This is where I am too. I want to know why the screen pass worked in the first quarter, and how the defense blew it up in the second quarter. It doesnt have to be every play, just a few here and there. And stop with the "WELL IF THERE'S A BETTER BLOCKING WIDE RECEIVER IN THE NFL RIGHT NOW, I DON'T KNOW WHO IT COULD BE." Just say "hey, this guy makes a nice block here, and the RB got 8 yards instead of getting stuffed." John Madden gets pooped on because of "the Pats should just take a knee here and play for overtime," but at his peak he was very good at this-showing what made plays successful (or not) without overdoing it. A lot of the new crop of announcers would do well to go back and rewatch some of his CBS telecasts from the 80s.
 

Patriot_Reign

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ahhhhhhhhhhhh I don't know Jim....this could be overturned
This.
I've wondered if he was considered so good in his first year was due to him having just retired from the NFL so he was still super close to the actual game and the inner workings of a game which translated to him being able to identify situational plays before the ball was snapped. Now I wonder if he's just lazy and the longer he goes from being part of an actual NFL team the more generic his schtick becomes. Like he just shows up "who's playing today?" and goes from there.

And for those wondering he signed a 10 year deal so it's doubtful he's going anywhere anytime soon.

Also, Brady will be terrible as a color guy.
 

Dahabenzapple2

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This is where I am too. I want to know why the screen pass worked in the first quarter, and how the defense blew it up in the second quarter. It doesnt have to be every play, just a few here and there. And stop with the "WELL IF THERE'S A BETTER BLOCKING WIDE RECEIVER IN THE NFL RIGHT NOW, I DON'T KNOW WHO IT COULD BE." Just say "hey, this guy makes a nice block here, and the RB got 8 yards instead of getting stuffed." John Madden gets pooped on because of "the Pats should just take a knee here and play for overtime," but at his peak he was very good at this-showing what made plays successful (or not) without overdoing it. A lot of the new crop of announcers would do well to go back and rewatch some of his CBS telecasts from the 80s.
And learn how to STFU when they instead state the obvious.
 

Dahabenzapple2

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This.
I've wondered if he was considered so good in his first year was due to him having just retired from the NFL so he was still super close to the actual game and the inner workings of a game which translated to him being able to identify situational plays before the ball was snapped. Now I wonder if he's just lazy and the longer he goes from being part of an actual NFL team the more generic his schtick becomes. Like he just shows up "who's playing today?" and goes from there.

And for those wondering he signed a 10 year deal so it's doubtful he's going anywhere anytime soon.

Also, Brady will be terrible as a color guy.
Peyton & Eli should be given a main gig with no guests
 

NortheasternPJ

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Romo seems to not take stands or be overly critical. When a challenge flag comes out in one of his games it becomes comical "Oh...oooo...ewwww...I don't know...I think they might leave it the way they called it..." COMMERCIAL BREAK, WE RETURN TO CALL BEING OVERTURNED "yeah, that's kinda how we saw that in real time..."

But, at the end of the day, I really don't care all that much about any of them and usually end up muting them then if there's an important replay, unmuting.
At least he used to take a stance, he hedges half the time now.

"Jim, you definitely have to go for it here, no question!"

Offense lines up

"Jim, this is a great situation to try to get them to jump, take a timeout and punt! Let's see what they do!!!!"
 

Van Everyman

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I don't know how some of you can watch a game on mute. To me, a huge part of sports is the noise of the game and the crowd. There aren't too many announcers I find truly annoying (Romo being the only one who comes to mind at the moment) but I couldn't mute the broadcast because I'd much rather endure the annoyance than miss the sound of the stadium/park/arena.
Hint: most, if not all, of them don’t.