Jim Nantz might deserve Tony Romo money from CBS, but he denies ever making that specific demand in contract negotiations.
Nantz was The Main Event on Andrew Marchand’s podcast this week, and during the interview he confronted The Athletic’s sports media reporter about a headline from 2020. “Jim Nantz, the face of CBS Sports, is looking for ‘Tony Romo money’ in what is shaping into a potential showdown between the network and its longtime star,” Marchand, then with the New York Post, wrote in Nov. 2020. Nearly four years later, Nantz wanted to address the report.
CLIP: Jim Nantz and I discussed my report on if he wanted “Romo money.”
We agreed to disagree. 😀😂
POD: Sign-up and listen https://t.co/yRnHUdymId pic.twitter.com/h4qbUBFbQy
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) September 5, 2024
“Maybe it was the headline writer that did it,” Nantz told Marchand. “That said, ‘Nantz is demanding Romo money.’ I swear on my life I never did that. Nor did I ever demand…it sounded like I came in and put my fist down, ‘I want Romo money!’ I never said that.”
Marchand, however, was eager to defend his reporting. And when Nantz denied wanting a contract similar to the one Romo agreed to with CBS in early 2020, Marchand came back with an excellent follow up.
“As the face of CBS, does golf, NCAA at that point, and the Super Bowl, you didn’t feel like that you deserved the same kind of contract Tony Romo only working five months a year deserved?” Marchand asked.
“I thought they were unrelated.” Nantz said of comparing his own contract negotiations with CBS to Tony Romo’s.
In February 2020, Romo raised the ceiling on sportscaster contracts, signing a 10-year, $180 million contract with CBS at the height of his popularity as an analyst. Nantz at the time, was reportedly making around $6.5 million per year, an annual salary that would ultimately increase to about $10.5 million when he signed his current CBS deal in 2021.
Maybe Nantz didn’t barge through a door banging on the table demanding Romo money during his last contract negotiation with CBS. But his agent would have been right to make that argument. As the face of CBS, Nantz probably did and does deserve a salary closer to what Romo is making.
There were two things working against Nantz, however. He’s not a former star quarterback the way Romo, Troy Aikman and Tom Brady are. And despite other networks surely being interested in his services, no one ever really believed Nantz would leave CBS. Everyone has a price, but Nantz is probably too fond of The Masters to leave CBS over a dollar amount. Maybe that’s all the more reason to have his agent start negotiations by demanding Tony Romo money to see how close they could get.
