Tony Romo Arrested for OWI in Milwaukee Weeks Before NFL Season Kickoff
Tony Romo, CBS Sports’ lead NFL analyst and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, was arrested in Milwaukee on Thursday for operating while intoxicated, first offense, according to an arrest report obtained by Fox6 Milwaukee.
The 46-year-old was pulled over while driving on Interstate 43 and taken into custody after, in the language of the report, “performing poorly on standardized field sobriety tests.” He is due in court on Monday, September 21.
A CBS Sports spokeswoman declined to comment on the arrest Friday.
The timing lands like a blindside hit. Romo’s arrest comes roughly three weeks before the 2026 NFL season opener, and CBS is expected to slot him alongside Jim Nantz and Tracy Wolfson for Bills-Texans in Week 1 on September 13 — a marquee assignment built around Josh Allen’s star power. The network also has an in-person media session with its NFL on-air talent and executives scheduled for August 11 in New York. Whether Romo attends is unclear.
Romo joined CBS in 2017 after 14 seasons under center for the Cowboys, stepping directly into the No. 1 analyst chair vacated by Phil Simms. He became an instant broadcast sensation — fans dubbed him “Romostradamus” for his knack of calling plays before the snap, a trick that played like magic until it didn’t. Recent seasons have brought mounting criticism that his preparation has slipped and his in-game predictions have grown less sharp.
In January, Romo addressed the criticism on The Pat McAfee Show with the kind of shrug a guy who’s been booed in Philadelphia can muster. “I love it. It’s a great job,” he said.
Nantz, his booth partner, told McAfee separately that he hears “the noise” but defended Romo as a singular talent. “We should celebrate the fact that he’s different. He’s got this oversized personality. He acts like a big kid in the booth,” Nantz said. “By the way, off the air, he’s a big kid. That’s what makes him fun. It’s authentic. It’s who he is.”
CBS has a credible fallback if the situation escalates: its No. 2 team of JJ Watt and Ian Eagle has drawn strong reviews. But replacing Romo mid-season would be a logistical and PR headache the network has no appetite for — assuming the first-offense OWI doesn’t snowball into something worse.
Romo threw for 34,183 yards and 248 touchdowns across his Cowboys career, made four Pro Bowls, and never quite shook the reputation of a quarterback who put up gaudy numbers and couldn’t get out of his own way in January. Now he’s in a different kind of hole, and the playbook for getting out of this one won’t involve a bootleg.
