After nine years in the CBS booth and establishing himself as the NFL’s most reliable voice, Tony Romo’s credibility is truly on shaky ground right now. Court records reveal that Romo pleaded no contest to operating while intoxicated after he was stopped in Wisconsin in July. He initially refused a breath test, but a subsequent breathalyzer test showed a blood-alcohol level almost twice the legal limit.

“After his July arrest on suspicion of OWI, Tony Romo’s BAC was reportedly measured at 0.15 percent, nearly twice the legal limit,” Pro Football Talk posted on X.

Tony Romo’s July round of golf ended with flashing lights in his rearview mirror, and the fallout from that stop is still playing out five weeks later.

The former Cowboys quarterback and current CBS lead analyst was pulled over on July 23 in Milwaukee County, reportedly heading home to see his grandparents after a day on the course.

Deputies noted he had “red glassy eyes” and smelled of alcohol, and body camera footage backed up their account. They also found an open bottle on the passenger side of his Jeep.

What followed was a rough stretch for Romo. He was hit with four citations: operating while intoxicated, an open container, an unsafe pass, and initially refusing a sobriety test.

The records show his blood alcohol level was at 0.15 percent, essentially double Wisconsin’s legal threshold of 0.08. He was booked, released, and told to appear in court on September 21.

The penalties aren’t harsh. He’ll pay an $834 fine, serve a six-month license suspension, complete an alcohol assessment, and have an ignition interlock device installed for at least one year once he gets his license back.

But the professional fallout has been more immediate.

CBS pulled him from the air last month, saying only that he’s “on leave from his role at CBS Sports until further notice.”

That statement raises more questions than it answers. Nobody said whether Romo asked for the break himself or whether the network made the call. For now, per the reports, CBS Sports has tapped JJ Watt to step in alongside Jim Nantz and Tracy Wolfson on the top broadcast team while this gets sorted out.

Moreover, money is likely to shape how this plays out. Romo signed on as CBS’s top analyst back in 2017 and is reportedly pulling in around $18 million a year. CBS Sports president David Berson said last month there’s no set timeline for deciding what happens next.

For now, the ball’s in CBS’s court, and Romo’s future with the network remains an open question.

Tony Romo addressed the incident on Instagram

Romo finally broke his silence on the arrest this week, posting a statement to Instagram that confirmed what court records had already shown: he had pleaded no contest to the OWI charge.

The tone was reflective rather than defensive.

“The past month has been difficult, but it has also been personally significant,” he wrote on Instagram. “It has required me to confront and own my mistakes fully, to the Lord, to myself, to my family and now to the public.”

He also opened up about what led to that night, tracing it back to the back surgeries that ended his playing career.

“Multiple back surgeries ended my career earlier than I expected and left me with constant, debilitating pain,” he explained. “That pain led to a dependence on pain medication, and my efforts to get off those medications led to an over-reliance on alcohol.”

He was careful not to frame it as an excuse.

“None of this is an excuse,” he added. “These are my failures, and I take responsibility for them.”

Looking ahead, Romo said he plans to return to CBS “in time.”

Whether that lines up with the network’s own thinking is another question entirely. CBS placed him on leave on July 31, just eight days after the arrest, and has already slotted JJ Watt into his seat alongside Jim Nantz in the meantime.

CBS itself has stayed quiet. John Ourand of Puck reports the network declined to comment on Romo’s statement at all. Ourand also points out that Romo apparently didn’t coordinate the post with CBS beforehand, a detail that hints at real distance opening up between the two sides.

As for whether Romo ever gets his old seat back, Ourand isn’t optimistic.

He writes that it still appears “exceedingly unlikely” Romo will return to CBS, regardless of how the current leave eventually gets resolved.