Tony Romo's summer took a hard left turn nobody saw coming for a guy who spent the last several years as the highest-paid, most-imitated voice in the broadcast booth. On Tuesday, the former Cowboys quarterback and CBS's lead NFL analyst pleaded no contest to an OWI charge stemming from a traffic stop in Wisconsin, and the fallout is now official: his driving privileges are revoked for 6 months.
Tony Romo has had his driving privileges revoked for six months after he pleaded no contest Tuesday to charges that he was driving while intoxicated. t.co/OLAw2ARm5r
Adam Schefter's report laid out the legal consequences in plain terms — a plea entered Tuesday, a license suspension attached to it. Ian Rapoport framed it as Romo "owning his mistakes," which lines up with the statement Romo put out himself, where he said flatly that he takes responsibility for what happened.
CBS analyst Tony Romo has pleaded no contest to OWI and released a statement owning his mistakes: t.co/6T50XkNay2 t.co/6T50XkNay2
The arrest traces back to July, when Romo was stopped in Milwaukee and, according to court records, one of the responding deputies noted a strong smell of alcohol. CBS didn't wait around for the legal process to play out — the network put Romo on indefinite leave shortly after news of the arrest broke. Now that he's entered his plea, Romo says the leave is temporary, not permanent, and that he intends to be back calling games.
What makes the statement land differently than a typical athlete mea culpa is the context Romo gave for how he got here. He pointed to the string of back surgeries that pushed him out of the NFL earlier than he wanted, and the chronic pain that followed. He said that pain led to a reliance on pain medication, and that trying to wean off those medications is what tipped him toward leaning on alcohol instead — a chain of events he says he's now confronting directly.
Tony Romo releases statement on OWI
Clarence Hill Jr.'s post of the statement itself is what's actually circulating among Cowboys and NFL media right now — Romo remains one of the most recognizable names to come out of that Dallas era, and a DUI-adjacent legal case involving CBS's top analyst was always going to travel fast. The reaction from league circles has mostly been sympathetic rather than pile-on, with Joe Schad's simple "wishing the best to Tony Romo" capturing the general tone.
Beyond the six-month license revocation, Romo was also ordered to have an ignition interlock device installed on any vehicle he owns or drives, complete an alcohol assessment program, and pay a fine. None of that stops him from sitting in a broadcast booth — it's a driving restriction, not a network suspension — but CBS still has to decide when, or if, it lifts the indefinite leave it placed him on back in July. For now, the legal chapter is closed. The professional one is still being written.