Tony Romo calls Josh Allen ‘Mahomes’ during Bills-Broncos CBS playoff broadcast

NFL on CBS color commentator Tony Romo drew plenty of criticism for his broadcasting performance during the AFC Wild Card round playoff game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars. Romo later revealed that he was sick during the broadcast.

On Saturday, Romo and play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz had the CBS call for the Bills’ AFC Divisional Round matchup against the Denver Broncos. And Romo had a flub in the second quarter that led to plenty of mocking on social media from CBS viewers.

Romo accidentally referred to Bills quarterback Josh Allen as “Mahomes” after Allen had a long run in the second quarter.

Tony Romo calls Josh Allen “Mahomes,” hitting several Bingo card spaces all at once. pic.twitter.com/kzEB3weoWc

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 17, 2026

Here’s a sampling of social media calling out the blunder:

Tony Romo calling Josh Allen Mahomes is the final form of glazing

pic.twitter.com/vymfSahHAf

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) January 17, 2026

Tony Romo really called Josh Allen…Mahomes 🥺 pic.twitter.com/Si3vEUhTZB

— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) January 17, 2026

Did he just call him Mahomes

— Mina Kimes (@minakimes.bsky.social) January 17, 2026 at 2:15 PM

I think Tony Romo just called Josh Allen “mahomes” pic.twitter.com/8DHr65TK7W

— PFT Commenter (@PFTCommenter) January 17, 2026

Now, in fairness to Romo, CBS had just shown a graphic featuring Mahomes (in reference to Allen’s playoff history) right before the play, with Nantz mentioning “Mahomes” a few times in response to that graphic. Understandably, it was still on Romo’s mind.

Obvious slip up but to be somewhat fair, this happened immediately after Romo was talking through an on-screen graphic that had Mahomes name on it 4 times and he said it several times. It wasn’t completely out of nowhere https://t.co/4IHlt3woLA

— Shaun Newkirk (@Shauncore) January 17, 2026

So, we’ll chalk this one up to more of a funny (and some would say fitting, with Romo’s affinity for each Allen and Mahomes) gaffe rather than one to really criticize Romo for.