Over the last few years, the NFL media and broadcast industry has been flooded by former players. From studio gigs to color commentary in the booth, if a station can get a former player in the mix, they will.
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Some, however, aren’t satisfied with the money they’re getting for their work. Cam Newton recently suggested that there is a pay gap for NFL players-turned-pundits based on race. He says that black QBs don’t get paid enough compared to their white counterparts, complaining that “I don’t get no Brady deal.”
Shannon Sharpe, on the other hand, calls that nonsense. He believes that if you look at other people’s pockets, you’re going to get upset. In fact, Sharpe believes that any former player in broadcasting or looking to get into broadcasting shouldn’t be lamenting the money Tom Brady makes. Sharpe believes they should be celebrating the guy that came before Brady: Tony Romo.
“Everybody in the media that calls games should applaud Tony Romo. Because nobody wasn’t making this kind of money until Tony Romo got that deal. Troy Aikman got his deal because of Romo. Brady got his deal because of Romo… Everybody should applaud Tony Romo,” said the former tight end-turned analyst.
In 2017, a year after his playing career ended, Romo joined CBS’s top broadcasting team, calling games alongside Jim Nantz. He performed so well that he pushed Phil Simms from the top team, despite Simms having held the role for nearly 20 years since 1998.
Romo was an instant hit. He was funny and personable, but above all, he clearly knew his stuff. He could explain plays in a way any viewer could understand. What really stood out, though, was his predictive ability.
On many occasions, Romo would anticipate the play, scheme, or concept a team would use next. That ability earned him the extension in 2020 that Sharpe was talking about. The one that changed the game by paying a humble color commentator a whopping $17 million per year after just three years in the industry. More than even the best running back in the NFL.
This led to a couple more massive deals in the NFL broadcasting space a couple of years later in 2022. Tom Brady was announced as FOX’s top color commentator after retirement, signing an insane 10-year, $375 million contract for the gig. Troy Aikman left FOX to join ESPN that same year, and they are now paying him upwards of $18 million a season.
The Athletic reported that FOX newcomer Drew Brees is also likely making about $20 million per year in his new role as one of FOX’s big three color commentators alongside Brady and Greg Olsen, the latter of whom is arguably the most underrated voice in the sport.
Before Romo, color commentators were not celebrities. But his Nostradamus-like ability to see what’s coming in an NFL game changed all that. And his peers should recognize that.
