Tony Romo Ripped for His Weird Patrick Mahomes-Josh Allen Mistake in Bills-Broncos

Tony Romo was back in the CBS booth for Saturday's thrilling Bills-Broncos divisional round playoff game and while he did have one vintage prediction moment before a Denver touchdown, for most of the afternoon he left viewers fed up with his many mistakes and weird antics.

Romo took a lot of heat after his brutal performance during the Bills' win over the Jaguars last Sunday. He later explained that he was battling an illness in that game and said he didn't pay much attention to critics who have been continually fed up with the things he does during broadcasts.

His struggles hit a strange new low early in the second quarter in Denver when he called Josh Allen "Mahomes" while breaking down a nice play by the Bills quarterback.

Here's how that played out:

Tony Romo calls Josh Allen "Mahomes," hitting several Bingo card spaces all at once. pic.twitter.com/kzEB3weoWc
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 17, 2026

Slips of the tongue are going to happen during broadcasts. It's only human. The problem here is that Romo is under the spotlight now because of how far he's fallen in recent years. You just can't mistake Allen for Mahomes in that moment. Romo could've gotten away with that in the first few years of his broadcasting career because back then he was a fan favorite who was always correctly predicting things to happen moments before they actually happened.

Romo has now become a big problem for CBS. They're paying him a bunch of money to call the biggest games each week and he rarely rises to the occasion. Also, he's under contract until 2030 so he's likely not going anywhere.

Here's another big moment from Saturday's game that Romo botched:

I hate to keep piling on Romo but this was 2 minutes of the most confusing worst announcing in the history of football. Arent there spotters in the booth to tell them what is going on? #broncosvsbills pic.twitter.com/u1iDdZvDmf
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) January 17, 2026

NFL fans lit Romo up over that Mahomes-Allen mistake:

The drop off with Romo has been insane considering where he started. But that’s what happens when you settle/get lazy. https://t.co/HgT5eXNYQr
— Demetrius Harvey (@Demetrius82) January 17, 2026

"The criticism is a made up media narrative" https://t.co/8Zeza3giKk
— Ollie Connolly (@OllieConnolly) January 17, 2026

This is what $18 million a year gets you. https://t.co/oHGsIGfbEF
— Chad Withrow (@TheChadWithrow) January 17, 2026

Might be time for Tony Romo to hang em up lmao https://t.co/W5g4XRPvTD
— kyle (@kyledxniel) January 17, 2026

Little mistakes like this happen. I don’t think messing up a name is the worst thing ever.

But when it is the latest instance for someone in the booth after they’ve been awful all season… well… yea. https://t.co/O8B6sE5FmW
— RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa) January 17, 2026

But I thought CBS said he was doing a good job and that all criticism was unwarranted and unfair https://t.co/sZcz9RgcYU
— JaguarGator9 (@JaguarGator9NFL) January 17, 2026

Romo was drawing all over the screen pre-snap yesterday. We can mute his lousy commentary but there’s no way to watch the game without seeing his stupid and unhelpful scribbling on the screen.#NFL https://t.co/hSH2W4XTUL
— James Kittle (@jameskittle) January 18, 2026

Romo will be back in Denver next Sunday for the AFC championship game. Thankfully that will be his last game of the season, as NBC has the Super Bowl this year.

While Mahomes and Allen will be watching from home, maybe they'll still hear their name get called by Romo.

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