Tony Romo, who loves himself some sponsor exemptions on the PGA Tour, is about to cash in with a new contract from ESPN, according to a report by Mike McCarthy of Front Office Sports.
Romo, the pigskin prognosticator who currently works for CBS for an annual salary of $4 million per year, is reportedly in talks with ESPN for a $10-$14 million deal. Per season.
That kind of money would make him the highest paid sportscaster in the history of televised sports.
He’s only in his third year of his current gig, but ESPN reportedly has big plans for Romo. He’d likely take over the Monday Night Football analyst gig. He might also be the lead analyst on a Sunday game, should ESPN muscle their way into a NFL spot it currently doesn’t hold. And for that kind of money, Romo is likely to be everywhere ESPN is, maybe even a golf telecast.
ESPN televises the first two rounds of the Masters and starts an 11-year deal with the PGA of America for exclusive coverage of the first two rounds of the PGA Championship in 2020. ESPN will also have live morning as well as featured hole coverage on the weekends.
You have to think his new TV gig would still allow him some opportunities to swing the wrenches, something he’s pretty good at.
Last September, Romo rattled the golf world with a first-round 70 at the Safeway Open before posting a 78 to miss the cut. Nonetheless, Romo proved these sponsor exemptions aren’t a complete waste of everyone’s time.
Then again, for the money ESPN is purportedly getting ready to fork over, maybe they don’t want Romo dabbling in golf. CBS had to make contingency plans for him making the cut. Playing the weekend in Napa, California, would’ve meant he wouldn’t have made that Sunday’s Vikings at Bears game.
Count television partner Jim Nantz among his biggest supporters of his quest to play on the PGA Tour.
“I have a lot of faith in Tony being able to pull off whatever he wants to do,” Nantz told Golfweek in September. “The same thing that made him an undrafted free agent out of Eastern Illinois and go on to set every passing record for the Dallas Cowboys that exists, same thing that took a guy from the playing field to the broadcast booth and into the ‘A position’ – and again met with a lot of doubts and critics – and proved to be a generational broadcaster from the analyst side, that’s where it’s coming from.
“He’s proven people wrong his whole life.”
Golfweek’s Adam Schupak contributed to this article.