CBS Sports' lead NFL analyst is off the air eight days after his arrest. The network announced on Friday, July 31, that Tony Romo is on leave from his role at CBS Sports until further notice, following a July 23 traffic stop in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. J.J. Watt takes the lead analyst chair alongside Jim Nantz and Tracy Wolfson.
The traffic stop
Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office deputies stopped Romo on southbound Interstate 43 at 6:18 p.m. CT on July 23 after observing him pass vehicles in the gore area, the painted separation between the interstate and an on-ramp. According to ESPN, deputies reported that Romo performed poorly on field sobriety tests, and that they found an open container of alcohol in his black Jeep.
Romo was cited three times by the sheriff's office: first-offense operating while intoxicated, unsafe passing, and having an open intoxicant in a motor vehicle. He was additionally cited for refusing to submit to a chemical test after his arrest. Yahoo Sports reported that the refusal exposes him to a year-long license revocation and the possibility of a mandatory ignition-interlock device, and that Romo's attorney has already filed to contest it. He was booked and released, and is scheduled to appear in court on September 21.
The citations are unresolved. Romo has not entered a plea and has not been convicted of anything. Neither he nor a representative has issued a public statement about the arrest.
What CBS said, and who replaces him
The network's statement was one sentence: "Tony Romo is on leave from his role at CBS Sports until further notice." That statement gave no timeline, and did not address whether the leave is paid or whether CBS will wait for the September 21 court date before deciding anything further. NBC News reported that it was not immediately clear whether the decision to go on leave was made by Romo or by CBS Sports.
Watt is not a new hire pressed into service. He joined CBS in 2023 as a studio analyst and moved into a game-analyst role last season, so the network is elevating someone already calling games rather than reshuffling its depth chart from scratch. The timing is tight regardless: NFL training camps opened in July, and the regular season is weeks away. NBC News noted that the September 21 court date would fall on the Monday night of the NFL's Week 2.
The booth was already changing around Romo. CBS moved to add Russell Wilson to its studio lineup in June, when he was finalizing a deal to join "The NFL Today."
The contract
Romo joined CBS in April 2017, immediately after retiring as the Dallas Cowboys' quarterback, and has been the network's lead NFL game analyst ever since. In 2020, ESPN reported that CBS retained him at roughly $17 million a year on a firm three-year deal that could grow to a 10-year term if the NFL extended its rights agreement with the network — terms that made him the highest-paid NFL analyst in television history at the time.
CBS has not said whether the leave affects that compensation.
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