Over the course of the last three weeks, some of the biggest names in the business of reporting on (and pontificating about) sports media have transformed themselves into a scruffy simulacrum of the town elders from Footloose. Only instead of crusading against the evils of dancing teenagers, our most pedantic podcasters have joined forces to convince their audiences that Tony Romo should be doing the Texas two-step to the nearest unemployment office.
Since Romo’s July 23 traffic stop and subsequent arrest was captured by a Milwaukee County Sheriff’s deputy’s body-cam, the John Lithgows of the sports-biz space have been in lockstep with one another, and while no commentator has gone as far as to suggest that CBS is obligated to relieve Romo of his duties alongside Jim Nantz, nor does anyone seem willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Before we get into why all the convulsive fortune-telling is unfair to Romo—hint: the most commonplace arguments for divesting Romo of his dancing shoes effectively assume that the presumption of innocence does not apply to him—it’s probably worth noting that a final decision is almost certain to be delayed until after the broadcaster’s scheduled court hearing on Sept. 23. Unless prosecutors introduce physical evidence to prove he’d been drinking before getting behind the wheel, Romo’s offense is unlikely to rise above the “suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence.”
