Tony Romo’s next chapter could take him right back where it all started.
After nine years in CBS Sports’ broadcast booth, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback is out at the network and now facing a very different kind of offseason. CBS and Romo mutually agreed to part ways following his July arrest, with the network confirming the split on Friday and saying J.J. Watt will remain the lead analyst alongside Jim Nantz.
Romo had already been away from CBS since late July after pleading no contest to an operating-while-intoxicated charge in Wisconsin. For now, he plans to step back, focus on his health and family, and sort out what comes next.
That uncertainty has opened the door to one very familiar possibility: Dallas.
Longtime Cowboys insider Mike Fisher has floated the idea that the Cowboys could become a landing spot for Romo. It’s not hard to see why the conversation is happening. Jerry Jones has long been one of Romo’s strongest backers, and he has spoken about the former quarterback in glowing terms before.
“He had a life of that (overcoming adversity),” Jones said. “That’s one of his greatest attributes.
He can handle adversity. This is something that he will work through.”
Romo spent all 13 of his NFL seasons with Dallas and still has deep ties to the organization. He hasn’t publicly said he wants a coaching job or a front-office role, but his departure from CBS has revived talk that a return to the Cowboys could be in play.
The idea isn’t without precedent. Former players such as John Elway, John Lynch and Troy Aikman have gone on to front-office or advisory roles with teams, and Romo could eventually follow a similar path.
There’s also the contract side of this story. Romo signed a 10-year, $180 million deal with CBS in 2020 and had a sizable amount of money still left on it. Industry reports said the sides reached a financial settlement before splitting.
Romo has said he wants to take a real break, something he noted he has never done before, before deciding on any future opportunity. He has also tied his recent struggles to the long-term pain from multiple back surgeries that ended his playing career. Romo said that led to a dependence on medication and, later, relying too heavily on alcohol as he tried to work through it.
He has stressed accountability for those mistakes and said he wants to put family and personal recovery first.
Nothing is official on the Cowboys front yet, but the idea of Romo back in Dallas has now moved from a distant thought to a very real conversation. For a franchise icon who spent his entire career in one uniform, it would be a full-circle turn.
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