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Unlike his former teammate turned broadcaster Jason Witten, Tony Romo was an almost immediate hit when he stepped into the CBS broadcasting booth with Jim Nantz to call NFL games.
One of the main reason Romo was immediately praised for his broadcasting work, if not THE main reason, was the fact that he seemed to be clairvoyant when it came to predicting what play teams were going to call next.
Fast forward a year, and now, as Romo gets ready for his second NFL season in the booth, he admitted to For The Win that the big thing everyone loved, him making amazing play predictions, was something he was NOT supposed to be doing. Whoops!
“It wasn’t like I was predicting plays,” Romo explained. “You’re just kind of talking. It didn’t feel like, ‘I’m going to predict the play here.’ It felt like you were talking about the game that you were seeing and you’re trying to let the viewer know something that could be neat to look out for. Sometimes you’re just talking to Jim (Nantz) and stuff comes out. I think the goal is to not feel rehearsed ever. It’s a natural communication.”
“Stuff comes out…” I feel you, Romo.
But seriously, it is understandable that his producers wouldn’t been keen on the idea of him trying to predict plays. If he was wrong all the time the internet, as we well know, would skewer him. Luckily for everyone involved, including the viewing audience, Romo was right far more than he was wrong.
“It’s like a golf shot: What happens if I shank this ball out of bounds? Well you’re not trying to!” continued Romo. “You’re trying to make birdie. Let’s go, let’s attack. If you’re ever going to be good at anything, you’ve got to attack and let it go. And you might fail and you might fail again. But one day you’ll hit that shot. You’ll get better. I just feel like you just let it go.”
Check out this entire Tony Romo Q&A, including what he thinks of his buddy Jason Witten’s Monday Night Football performance so far, over at ForTheWin.com.