Cowboys fans never got to see Tony Romo play in a Super Bowl, but the former quarterback of America’s Team will finally be there for America’s biggest game when the Los Angeles Rams and New England Patriots square off in snowy Atlanta. The Cinderella story of Romo, an undrafted and unknown free agent rocketing to superstardom as the leader of the league’s highest-profile franchise dovetails into to the story of his just-as-unlikely journey to the CBS broadcast booth. And it’s a story, in a fascinating read at SI.com, that will come full circle on Sunday. That’s because Romo’s gig calling this Super Bowl came as a result of not playing in two other Super Bowls.
It was January 30, 2015: two nights before the Patriots and Seahawks were to meet in Super Bowl XLIX at AT&T Stadium. And at a party during the hype week festivities in Dallas, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus was talking with Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones. McManus asked Romo, less than three weeks off the infamous Dez-caught-it playoff loss in Green Bay, about the Super Bowl matchups.
“He gave a seven or eight-minute presentation on how the Seattle defense could stop Tom Brady and how the Patriots could take care of Russell Wilson,” McManus told SI.com’s Jacob Feldman. “It was amazing. He was enthusiastic. He was engaging. I walked away from that meeting and I said to David Berson, ‘I think that’s our next analyst whenever he retires.'”
Fast-forward two years to Super Bowl LI in Houston. Romo had spent most of the season injured, watched Dak Prescott’s rise to glory, and thrown what the world recognized as his final pass as a Cowboy a month earlier. He was considering joining another pro team, including the Texans, for the upcoming 2017 season when he took a clandestine meeting at a Houston restaurant with McManus, Berson, and then-CBS CEO Les Moonves the day before the Patriots and Falcons met to decide the league championship.
CBS had a potential booth opening, having already decided to shift Phil Simms to the studio. The network was gauging Romo’s interest in trading his cleats for a mic.
“The group kept chatting for nearly two hours, with the CBS crew noticing time and again Romo’s natural skills, which had previously wowed producers and Jim Nantz,” Feldman writes. “‘You could see when he was talking about defensive schemes or quarterbacks, he was so engaging and so much fun to listen to,’ McManus said.”
It was enough to seal the deal for the network brass.
Feldman reports McManus told his colleagues as Romo left the meeting, “That’s our guy. We have to get this guy.”
CBS did get Romo, and it’s been a remarkable ride from Day 1, with effusive reviews for the Nantz-Romo A-team and a spike in ratings for whatever game they happened to be calling. Casual fans and football nerds alike seem to be drawn in by Romo’s excitement and passion, but also his skill at breaking down complicated Xs and Os so that neither subset of the audience felt pandered to. And Romo’s knack for calling out plays before they happen has earned him the catchy nickname “Romostradamus.”
And now that Romo has made it to a Super Bowl — albeit wearing a CBS blazer instead of a Cowboys helmet — fans can still live or die by what he does come game time. Many of the game’s special prop bets are based on Romo’s broadcasting habits.
According to the Dallas Morning News, bettors can wager on, among other things: how many plays Romo will correctly predict, the number of times he and Nantz refer to Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski as “Gronk,” how many times Romo says, “Here we go!” before a snap, how many times the nickname “Romostradamus” is mentioned aloud during the telecast, the primary color of Romo’s tie, and what Romo will be doing at the start of the 2019 NFL season (for those still clinging to the delusion that he’ll leave his booth gig to coach in some capacity).
Follow Todd on Twitter @ToddBrock24f7.
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