Tony Romo out at CBS Sports

Tony Romo’s leave from CBS Sports is now permanent.

CBS announced the split Friday, ending Romo’s tenure as the network’s top NFL analyst a little over two months after his OWI arrest in Milwaukee. Romo hasn’t called a game this season, and his absence left CBS without the analyst it had built its NFL coverage around since 2017, when it handed the former Cowboys quarterback the No. 1 job straight out of retirement and later locked him into a 10-year, $180 million contract.

J.J. Watt, who has been at Jim Nantz’s side since Week 1, will keep the job for the remainder of the season alongside Nantz and Tracy Wolfson. The former Texans star spent last year as Ian Eagle’s partner on CBS’s No. 2 team before Romo’s arrest vaulted him into the network’s top booth, and CBS made clear it has no plans to disrupt its lineup again, with Eagle, Ross Tucker and Evan Washburn staying together on the second team.

“CBS Sports and Tony Romo have mutually agreed to part ways. We thank Tony for his contributions over the past nine years and wish him the best moving forward,” the network’s statement read. “J.J. Watt will continue to partner with Jim Nantz and Tracy Wolfson on our lead NFL announce team for the rest of the season. All other teams remain the same, including Ian Eagle, Ross Tucker and Evan Washburn.”

Romo was arrested on July 23 in Milwaukee on suspicion of operating while intoxicated, hours after competing in the Wisconsin Amateur Championship in the state where he grew up. Body camera footage obtained by TMZ showed Romo telling deputies he was on his way to “visit grandma and grandpa” before stumbling through a series of standardized sobriety tests, and police later found an open container of alcohol in his vehicle.

A week later, CBS placed him on leave “until further notice” and tapped Watt to step in with Nantz and Wolfson, a move that also reshuffled the network’s other NFL booths, with Eagle moving alongside Tucker.

Romo broke his silence last month, saying he was looking forward to returning to CBS, but the network declined to comment and pointed back to its original leave announcement, fueling widespread belief that it had no intention of bringing him back. CBS then went week by week without any update on his status. Romo, meanwhile, made his first public appearance since the arrest this week, playing in a pre-qualifying event for PGA Tour Q-School.

The financial terms of the separation weren’t disclosed, but The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported that roughly four years and $72 million remained on the deal when he was arrested.

Romo released a statement of his own shortly after CBS’s announcement, his first public comments since a Sept. 1 statement in which he acknowledged an “over-reliance on alcohol” while trying to wean himself off pain medication and said he hoped to eventually return to the network.

“I’m proud of what I accomplished at CBS Sports over the last nine years. I approached my role as a game analyst the way I’ve approached everything in my life, with a desire to win and be the best that I can be. I’m going to use this time to take a break, something I’ve never done before, and focus on my health and my family before moving on to my next opportunity. I am grateful for my time with CBS Sports and for the continued support of my family and friends, as well as the NFL community and fans.”

It’s a stunning fall for an analyst who once looked like the future of the profession. Romo jumped straight from the Cowboys to CBS’s No. 1 booth in 2017, replacing Phil Simms, and became an instant sensation for his uncanny ability to predict plays before the snap. That reputation faded in the years that followed, as critics increasingly questioned his preparation and his tendency to fill airtime with noises and non sequiturs, but he remained the face of the network’s NFL coverage until his arrest.

Watt now gets the rest of the season to prove he can hold the chair long term. His biggest test so far, Cowboys-Ravens in Brazil, drew decidedly mixed reviews, with Awful Announcing’s Brendon Kleen crediting his preparation and willingness to criticize officials and play calls while questioning his feel for the game’s biggest moments. Watt, for his part, told Dan Patrick this week that calling that game was as close as he could get to playing.

Romo, 46, now becomes the most intriguing free agent on the analyst market, which was already shaping up to be one of the more volatile in recent memory, with Troy Aikman and Greg Olsen both entering the final years of their deals.