Friday’s announcement that CBS and No. 1 NFL analyst Tony Romo have “mutually agreed to part ways” hardly means that the separation was a joint decision. Romo had vowed to return to CBS; CBS clearly did not want him back.
The mutual agreement comes from the paperwork. With Romo owed $72 million over four years, ending the relationship meant reaching an agreement on how much he’ll be paid to walk away.
Andrew Marchand of The Athletic writes that “CBS preferred to eat a good portion of the remaining money” to fighting with Romo over how much he’d get. Marchand notes that the “exact figure” is “unknown.” As Marchand surmises, the fact that the situation was resolved without full-blown litigation or arbitration means it was not insignificant.
Our guess (and it’s just a guess) is that Romo will get anywhere from half to two-thirds of the money — $36 million to $48 million. While CBS may have had a silver bullet in the contract allowing for termination without pay for violation of a broad and vague “morals clause,” it would have been difficult to make it stick based solely on an OWI arrest and ensuing no-contest plea.
And the simple reality is that CBS used the situation as a way to pull the plug. If CBS felt the same way about Romo as it did when he signed his latest contract, they would have found a way to excuse the situation and move on. He was already on thin ice at CBS, based in incessant criticisms of his performances. The OWI arrest was tantamount to Romo jumping up and down on it.
Romo still gets a sizable portion of the money. But he doesn’t get all of it, and he also loses the status and the profile that comes with being the top NFL analyst at one of the few networks that televise NFL games watched by millions every week.