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Tony Romo began his NFL commentary career on perhaps the biggest heater in commentary history.
He called out plays before they happened. He broke down formations and schemes with incredible precision, and in totality he just made fans feel much more informed about what they were watching.
Then year two rolled around.
We’re not sure if a sophomore slump is a thing for commentators. But it sure seemed like that was what Romo had.
Fans complained constantly about Romo as he’d talk over plays, get critical information wrong, and fail to add much value to the broadcast as a whole.
It got so bad that CBS executives reportedly had to have an intervention with Romo.
But with the new season just weeks away, Romo sat down with Richard Deitsch of The Athletic and revealed that he doesn’t much care what fans think about his commentary.
“I remember reading in the comments section of the newspaper in my second year or so there were people saying, ‘He throws it too low, he’ll never make it,’” Romo said about criticism he received during his playing career. “So I went and tried to throw higher arm because some guy wrote an article or said it in the comments. I mean, how dumb, right? It’s like that guy had no idea what he’s talking about. What’s said is not always reality.”
Romo also stated that he feels that social is not a strong representation of how the larger public feels.
“People come to me now and say they love our crew, they love how we do it,” Romo said. “Like anything, we’ve (the CBS crew) been at such a high level doing this for so long that it doesn’t matter who you are, people are not going to continually write the same article about how great you are. I mean, you wouldn’t do that. You’re not going to continually write, ‘They are the best,’ over and over again. They might still think it, but people have to find things to write. I think that’s just part of human nature.
“And guess what? There’s agendas. People like clicks. I mean, that’s a real thing. And I think they should. I think it’s all a positive. Talking about it, it helps all of the NFL. Our job is to go out there and perform like we’ve done and try to always do our best. I think we’ve done a great job with that. You’re looking at a very talented group here. Like all things, we’re going to go and try to put our best foot forward.”
Only time will tell whether Romo reverts back to his first-year form. But if he doesn’t, don’t expect the criticism to make him change anything.