CBS's top NFL broadcast team hit an uncomfortable snag Sunday when Jim Nantz repeated a story JJ Watt had just told moments earlier, a stumble that underscored the booth's still-rough chemistry after Tony Romo's indefinite leave.
The moment came during CBS's Steelers-Patriots broadcast. Nantz opened a segment on Pittsburgh coach Mike McCarthy's homecoming, describing how McCarthy had moved back to the neighborhood where he grew up, lives about a mile from his childhood home, and has sisters and parents just minutes away. The New York Post flagged what happened next: Watt picked up the thread, adding detail from a personal conversation with McCarthy about driving past his childhood home every day and the emotion McCarthy felt after his first win, including the game ball Aaron Rodgers handed him in the locker room.
Then Nantz, apparently not having heard a word Watt said, repeated the game-ball detail as though he were breaking news.
"It was truly incredible to listen to him talk about how he drives past his childhood home every day, and these are the streets every single day as a kid he grew up on. He talked to us about how emotional he got after that first win, getting the game ball from Aaron Rodgers, and just how special it was."
That was Watt. Seconds later, Nantz chimed in: "He got the game ball too, in the locker room from Aaron Rodgers after. It was quite a moment captured." The overlap was unmistakable.
Social media user Nicholas Callas posted a clip of the exchange on X. "I'm not sure Jim Nantz was paying attention when JJ Watt was talking here," he wrote, adding a laughing emoji. The post captured what viewers at home had already noticed: the veteran play-by-play man and his new analyst were not yet in sync.
The awkward moment carries extra weight because Watt is not in that chair by design. He is there because Tony Romo, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback who had been Nantz's partner for years, was arrested in Wisconsin on July 23 on suspicion of operating while intoxicated. Deputies from the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office pulled Romo over on a high-rise bridge on Interstate 43 after he left the Wisconsin Amateur Championship golf tournament. Body camera footage showed deputies noting his "red glassy eyes" and an "odor of an intoxicating alcoholic beverage," AP News reported. An open bottle of alcohol was found on the passenger side of his vehicle.
Romo told deputies he had been coming from a golf course and was on his way "to visit grandma and grandpa" when he was stopped. He later issued a public apology, citing an "over-reliance on alcohol" that he said developed from several back procedures during his 13-year NFL career.
CBS moved quickly. The network placed Romo on leave "until further notice." CBS Sports President Berson addressed the decision publicly.
"We have to consider the impact on our image and our brand. That's very important to us."
Fox News reported that Nantz expressed personal support for Romo, calling him "a great friend of mine" who "has been for years," while keeping the details of their private conversations confidential.
Romo pleaded no contest through his lawyer to the OWI charge this month. Three of four citations against him were dismissed as part of the plea agreement: possessing open intoxicants in a moving vehicle, unsafe passing on the right, and refusing to take a test for intoxication after arrest. CBS has not acknowledged any timeline for his return.
Watt, the retired Houston Texans star who hung up his cleats after the 2022 season, had joined CBS in 2023 and was working on the network's secondary broadcast team alongside Ian Eagle. After Romo's arrest, CBS promoted him to the No. 1 booth with Nantz and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson. Breitbart noted that the move contradicted an earlier report suggesting Romo would not miss any airtime.
Sunday's Steelers-Patriots game was only Watt's second broadcast alongside Nantz. The two are scheduled to call the Ravens-Cowboys game in Week 3, a 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff, with Wolfson again on the sideline. Whether the chemistry improves by then is an open question CBS would prefer not to have to answer.
The subject matter made the miscue especially conspicuous. McCarthy's return to Pittsburgh, where he grew up, where his family still lives, where he now coaches the Steelers after 13 seasons in Green Bay, was the kind of feel-good narrative broadcast booths exist to tell. Nantz set it up well enough the first time.
"Of course the big story was Mike McCarthy getting a chance to return to the Steel City, move back basically to the same neighborhood where he was raised. He's about a mile from the home he was raised in, his sisters live close by, his mom and dad are also just a minute drive away. It's just storybook for Mike."
Watt then added genuine texture, McCarthy's daily drives past his childhood home, the emotion after his first win, the game ball from Rodgers. It was solid color from an analyst still finding his footing. And then Nantz repeated the game-ball line as if Watt had said nothing at all.
No one expects a brand-new broadcast team to operate like a unit that has worked together for years. Nantz is a veteran. Watt is a former defensive end, not a polished studio hand. Rough patches come with the territory. But the whole reason this pairing exists is that CBS's previous lead analyst got pulled over on a Wisconsin highway with glassy eyes and an open bottle in his car. The network does not have the luxury of a long adjustment period.
When your top booth is a forced rebuild, every stumble gets a closer look, and this one earned it.
