Tony Romo is staying put.
CBS has reached a contract extension with Romo that will pay the NFL analyst $17 million per year, according to the New York Post and Sports Business Journal writer John Ourand. ESPN NFL writer Adam Schefter reported on Saturday that the deal will last through the end of the current CBS NFL deal in 2022, and then an additional seven years if CBS renews its package.
Romo joined CBS fresh from the playing field less than three years ago, but in that time has become one of the most acclaimed analysts in sports TV. He was widely expected to attract interest from competing networks — particularly ESPN — in the event that CBS was not able to reach an extension during its exclusive negotiating window.
Romo made $3 million per year in his initial three-year deal with CBS. Per the Post, CBS thought ESPN could bid as high as $20 million/year. ESPN did not get the chance to make a formal offer, according to Ourand. Sources told author Jim Miller, who wrote the ESPN book “Those Guys Have All the Fun,” that ESPN would “not have gotten close” to the $17 million mark.
The $17 million/year price tag exceeds that of some actual rights deals. Fox Sports, for example, is paying $15 million/year for rights to the Mountain West Conference. Romo’s deal is just under a third of what CBS is paying for rights to the SEC in its lame-duck deal ($55M).
[News from NYP 2.28, Ourand/Twitter 2.28, Miller/Twitter 2.28, Schefter/Twitter 2.29]
