Regardless of any criticisms, Jim Nantz and Tony Romo are CBS’s A team when it comes to NFL Sunday. The expectation each weekend is that they’ll be on the call for the most exciting game on the slate.
Heck, during the offseason, Nantz even speculated that CBS might have them call as many as nine Kansas City Chiefs games given the way the schedule shook out for the defending Super Bowl champions.
Looking ahead to Week 6 of the 2023 NFL season, there were certainly some intriguing options for where the broadcasting duo might end up. The surprising Jacksonville Jaguars are taking on the surging Indianapolis Colts for the AFC South lead. The Cincinnati Bengals and Joe Burrow are looking to get back on track against the 3-1 Seattle Seahawks. The outrageous offense of the Miami Dolphins will be on display against the Carolina Panthers.
However, Romo and Nantz have instead been assigned the game between the New England Patriots (1-4) and Las Vegas Raiders (2-3) at Allegiant Stadium. That decision left a lot of NFL folks a bit perplexed.
Jim Nantz (play by play), Tony Romo (analysis) and Tracy Wolfson (sideline) are scheduled to be on the CBS call for Patriots-Raiders on Sunday (4:05 p.m. ET).
Neither club has done much to warrant having the CBS top broadcasting team, but options aren’t plentiful. pic.twitter.com/YZcJomFVe5
— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) October 9, 2023
While you might chalk it up to CBS not having the strongest weekend slate, there’s actually a legitimate reason why the top team is calling such a dud game.
The answer has a lot to do with Super Bowl LVIII, which takes place on February 11, 2024, at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada. CBS is broadcasting the big game this year, which means Nantz and Romo will be the ones to call it. Whenever possible, if the network calling the Super Bowl can get its broadcasting team in that stadium for a “practice run” during the regular season, they try to do it.
This is inside baseball, but for those like Mark and me who wonder about such media things, the lead team of the network that has the Super Bowl always likes to do dry run from that stadium during the season. Thus, Nantz and Romo doing NE at Vegas to small audience Sunday https://t.co/iXgjbSBOUR
— Barry Jackson (@flasportsbuzz) October 11, 2023
Given that CBS doesn’t have too many Raiders home games on the schedule from here on out, they might as well use this weekend as the dry run.
It doesn’t have much to do with the quality of the game. The network that has the Super Bowl likes to give the #1 crew a dry run game at the same site for technical reasons, and CBS doesn’t have a lot of Raiders home games this year. https://t.co/zigSLdai4o
— 506 Sports (@506sports) October 9, 2023
While Nantz and Romo might be calling a game to one of their smallest audiences of the season this weekend, rest assured that it’s in service of a much larger purpose (and audience).
