Tony Romo responds to criticism he receives as broadcaster

Initially seen as a breath of fresh air, Tony Romo has since become one of the more heavily-criticized broadcasters in the NFL.

Tony Romo / Christopher Hanewinckel-Imagn Images

Following his retirement from the NFL after the 2016 season, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo became one of the hottest names in broadcasting.

Romo took the NFL by storm in 2017 due in large part to how different he was. While some analysts appear too buttoned up, Romo was quick to inject humor and still offered excellent insight. He even grew notoriety for predicting plays based on formations.

In 2020, CBS locked him up for a surprising $17 million per season. However, Romo’s star has lost a lot of shine since then.

No longer the media darling, Romo’s humor is now criticized as hyper and unorganized. The calls for CBS to move on have grown deafening and Romo recently dove into this topic on Cousin Sal’s Winning Weekend for The Ringer and FanDuel TV.

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Romo admitted that some of the criticism is warranted, although he stated most fans are rather complementary when they meet him. He also started that being a quarterback helped him prepare for the harsh takes since that came with the territory.

“You get a turtleback in some ways once you play in the NFL, where it’s like things can just kinda hit you and roll right off,” Romo said. “But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect the people around you or the people you’re with. So, you’ll hear about things and when you talk about the criticism I say, if you’re on Twitter and you’re basing it off that, it’s not unwarranted.”

Romo said the fans are the ones who should decide, and ultimately do.

That means he understands his job is to make the viewing experience the best it can be.

There was a time when this seemed easy for him but now he needs to figure out how to recapture that magic.

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