Former NFL quarterback and CBS media personality Tony Romo has one major person in his corner despite the mountains of criticism for his broadcasting work.
Even though plenty of folks have soured on Romo in the booth on NFL Sundays, his broadcasting partner Jim Nantz leaped to Romo’s defense recently. Nantz had strong words for the former quarterback’s harshest critics.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated (via Awful Announcing), Nantz said it was “very disappointing” to see what he felt was a “a little bit of a misinformation attempt there to portray [Romo] in a not so favorable light.”
Some of that could stem from the report that CBS hasn’t been happy with Romo’s performance as a broadcaster. The network did push against the idea that it had staged an “intervention” for Romo’s broadcasting work.
However, Nantz seems to be quite satisfied with Romo as his partner in the booth, and he’s not keen on the idea of folks questioning the dynamic the two have developed.
“For the life of me, I didn’t understand it,” Nantz told Sports Illustrated of the criticism against Romo. “Tony is the best. He’s the absolute best, and he’s also one of my best friends. And when somebody starts questioning our chemistry, there’s an agenda there. There is nothing wrong with our chemistry. I have never had better chemistry with anybody in my career than Tony.”
Nantz isn’t even all that sure where the criticisms of Romo are during the NFL season.
“Where was all this outcry during the season?” Nantz questioned in the interview. “Tony’s amazing. Don’t ask everybody to be the same, by the way. Tony does it his own way…Tony has his way of watching a game, and it’s fun. There’s an excitement; it’s real. Our friendship is real.”
Even though some NFL fans might be tired of hearing Romo call games in the fall, Nantz being in Romo’s corner is as big of an endorsement as a broadcaster could have.
Nobody should expect the former Cowboys quarterback to be anywhere but by Nantz in the CBS booth in the season to come.