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Tony Romo over police lights and handcuffs
Tony Romo has worked alongside Jim Nantz as part of the top NFL broadcasting duo at CBS for close to a decade, but he won’t be in the booth when the season gets underway this year after he was charged with an OWI in Wisconsin. However, he pledged to return and offered some insight into what led to his arrest in a statement he issued after appearing in court.
It has been a very eventful year for former NFL players who pivoted to broadcasting after hanging up their cleats (and for the networks that employ them).
Mark Sanchez was seemingly the victim of a stabbing in Indianapolis ahead of a Colts game he was slated to cover last October before police asserted he was actually the aggressor. He subsequently lost his job at Fox, and he’s currently facing up to six years in prison as he awaits trial.
That incident was slightly more serious than the one involving Tony Romo, who was charged with driving under the influence after he was pulled over in Wisconsin on July 23rd after leaving a golf tournament. His future at CBS still seems to be up in the air, but it sounds like he is fully planning to return after he addressed the situation for the first time.
Tony Romo acknowledged issues with substance abuse after pleading no contest to a DUI charge
Romo failed a field sobriety test when he was pulled over in Milwaukee around a month-and-a-half ago, and he refused to submit to a breathalyzer before he was charged with operating while intoxicated (his first charge in a state where the initial offense is treated as a civil violation usually accompanied by a fine between $150 and $300 and a suspended license).
Romo was originally slated to appear in court on September 21st, but it would appear the timeline got pushed up by a few weeks when you consider that he revealed he entered a plea of no contest on Tuesday morning in a statement he issued after appearing in court.
This is the first time Romo has personally addressed the situation, and he took “full responsibility” for his decision to get behind the wheel. While he didn’t attempt to justify it, he did add some context, saying the back surgeries that forced him to retire in 2017 “led to a dependence on pain medication” that caused “an over-reliance on alcohol” after he turned to booze to attempt to wean himself off the pills.
JJ Watt has been tapped to take Romo’s place in the booth alongside Nantz at CBS, and there has been plenty of speculation that could be a permanent move as the network reportedly weighs the possibility of cutting the former Cowboys QB loose after placing him on leave.
However, he stressed he has no plans to step away while promising a “return to CBS” once he’s sorted out his issues, so it will be very interesting to see how this ultimately plays out.