SI

Tony Romo On Partnership With Jim Nantz: ‘We're Clicking On All Cylinders Right Now’

Tony Romo says he's ‘gotten better’ in the booth this season.

Jimmy Traina

Jim Nantz and Tony Romo are in their eighth season as CBS’s lead NFL broadcast team.
Jim Nantz and Tony Romo are in their eighth season as CBS’s lead NFL broadcast team. / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

1. Jim Nantz and Tony Romo are currently in their eighth season working together as CBS’s lead NFL broadcast team, and they feel like they are better than ever.

Nantz and Romo appeared on the latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina and opened up about evolving as partners, with Romo specifically addressing criticisms he’s faced in recent years.

In discussing Nantz’s call a few weeks ago of Jayden Daniels’s Hail Mary that gave the Washington Commanders a win against the Chicago Bears, Romo explained his role at that moment, which led to an honest admission.

“Naturally, I’m a talker,” Romo said on the podcast, “but the truth is, Jimmy’s the best at those things, so it’s just better when I don’t say anything. So, whatever’s best for us is best for everybody. If Jimmy talked the whole game, I would have a good game, so it's kind of easy in that regard. Plus, it’s just learning, you know what I mean? You just learn and I’ve just improved and gotten better in some areas and I think that that’s just part of practicing.”

I asked Romo for the areas in which he thinks he’s improved.

“Well, like that. Just making it cleaner,” he said. “I think we're just clicking on all cylinders right now. This year has been real tight and I think that it's been very fun to go out there. We have such a good time doing it. I feel like I'm going into a game being able to show the fans greater detail than they've heard and provide that insight about their team. Just some of the nuance."

“I think they look forward to that and they look forward to the enjoyment of me and Jim's interaction and I think that's just easy and it shows," Romo added. "We're not rehearsing 8,000 things, we're talking, we're going to dinner together, we're coming on a podcast together and we actually really love each other and it's really fun.”

Romo had become a punching bag on social media the past few years, so I asked him if he’s consciously tried to do anything differently this season in the booth.

“You’re always trying to be the best version of yourself, and us being the best team ever,” Romo said. “I think we work really well together, and our brains are so fast. And for me, you want what’s best for the fans. You want what’s best for everyone, and it’s just about making it an enjoyable experience. So if the fans say they want this, I want to give it to them. So literally, that’s all we’re trying to do, and I think that’s showing.”

You can listen to the full podcast, which includes a preview of this Sunday’s monster Chiefs-Bills game, Nantz and Romo’s thoughts on Kansas City possibly going undefeated, the Cowboys’ demise and much more below.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Sports Illustrated‘s YouTube channel.

2. Major League Baseball’s ability to do everything wrong when it comes to scheduling is truly remarkable.

The MLB Network aired the All-MLB Team Show last night. So, instead of holding this event on Tuesday or Wednesday night, the league decided to put this show on a Thursday night when they would go head-to-head with the NFL. Just mind-boggling.

3. God bless Al Michaels. The Amazon play-by-play caller referenced the over/under in Thursday’s Commanders-Eagles game even when the over/under wasn’t even remotely in play.

4. I’ve written about a million media feuds over the years, but this one is truly unique. It seems there is beef between NBC and Josh Tesh. As Tesh tells it, NBC mentioned that Roundball Rock was coming back to the network’s NBA coverage next season, but did so before actually negotiating with Tesh for the rights to the theme song.

According to Tesh, NBC called him when the network got back the rights to the NBA and told him they also wanted to bring back Roundball Rock and wanted to say in a press release that the network was negotiating with Tesh for the right, even though Tesh claims he told NBC that wasn’t a good idea.

However, when the press release came out, it didn’t say NBC was negotiating with Tesh. It claimed that NBC had the rights to Roundball Rock. That’s when Tesh says he called NBC and said, “You said you were going to say you were negotiating with us in good faith.”

The response from NBC, according to Tesh?

“Yeah, we got out a little ahead of our skis.”

As for those negotiations, Tesh said, “When it came time to negotiate it was crickets for a long time, so I got cut off at the knees.”

So it seems the status of Roundball Rock for the 2025–26 NBA season is currently up in the air.

5. A lot of people have had a laugh over the past 24 hours regarding this interview that Mike Tyson did with a young kid during which he got super serious and said legacies are nonsense because we’re all gonna die and be dust. I want to give a shoutout, though, to the young interviewer. She handled things like a pro and deserves as much attention as Tyson.

6. They had me right up until “new characters.”

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Saw this tweet this morning.

Naturally, I now have to post this today.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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