Jim Nantz has broken his silence on the growing criticism of his broadcast booth partner, analyst and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo.
Nantz and Romo will complete their seventh season together as the head “NFL on CBS” commentary team this Sunday when they call Super Bowl 58 between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium.
Criticism towards Romo has mounted considerably during the 2023 season. In fact, Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported just a couple of weeks ago that “CBS Sports executives have an issue because” of the lack of chemistry between Romo and Nantz.
But during his appearance on the “Sports Illustrated Media With Jimmy Traina” podcast (h/t Brandon Contes of Awful Announcing), Nantz went to bat for Romo and stated that the growing criticism has never even been discussed between the two.
“Never had one conversation with Tony about it. I take it kind of as a forgone conclusion that everybody gets it…
Now people will say, ‘Don’t people send you sometimes clips or something on Twitter?’ Sure, but how I would get from there to see what people are saying about Tony, no. I wouldn’t even think about it. I’m going to use my own judgement of how the broadcasts are going. And I couldn’t be happier.
“I love working with Tony. Our chemistry is great. Our time together is just like it is on the air. We have a lot of laughter, a lot of fun. We see silliness, sometimes we bring that silliness to the air. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. That’s humor. But no, I don’t want to say any more about it because you’re asking me something that I’m not familiar with. We’re trying the best we can. I know we’ve had a super year and I really feel good about it going into the game.”
After the 2019 season, Romo and CBS agreed to a lucrative 10-year contract extension worth $180 million. He clearly isn’t going away any time soon, whether the majority of football fans like that or not.
Click on ‘Follow Us’ and get notified of the most viral NFL stories via Google! Follow Us
Sunday will mark the third Super Bowl broadcast for the Nantz-Romo tandem. They also called Super Bowl 53 and Super Bowl 55.
