CBS Sports has placed Tony Romo, its lead NFL game analyst, on leave following an arrest in Wisconsin last week.
"Tony Romo is on leave from his role at CBS Sports until further notice," the network said. It has not said how long the leave will last or what will determine when it ends.
What the record says
Romo was arrested on July 23 in Milwaukee County on suspicion of operating while intoxicated, the charge term used in Wisconsin, according to ESPN's account of the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office record. He received three citations, one of them for refusing to take a test for intoxication after arrest, which in Wisconsin is a separate violation from the impaired-driving charge itself.
A deputy reported stopping him after seeing a vehicle pass cars in a gore area, the painted wedge that separates a freeway from an on-ramp. The deputy's account describes "red glassy eyes" and an "odor of an intoxicating alcoholic beverage," an open container found in the vehicle, and poor performance on field sobriety tests. Romo was booked and released.
He is due in court on September 21.
What has not happened
No plea has been entered. Romo has not made a public statement, and no representative has commented on his behalf.
Everything in the section above is the arresting agency's account, which is one side of a case that has not been to court. An arrest is an allegation. The refusal citation in particular is worth understanding rather than skipping past: in Wisconsin, as in California, declining a chemical test after arrest carries its own administrative and criminal consequences separate from whether the driver is later found to have been impaired. It is a charge about the refusal, not a finding about the blood alcohol level.
The broadcasting question
Romo played for the Dallas Cowboys from 2004 through 2016, made four Pro Bowls and remains the franchise's leader in career touchdown passes with 248. He moved directly from the field to the broadcast booth in 2017 and became CBS's lead analyst, one of the most visible jobs in American sports television.
The NFL regular season begins in September. CBS has not indicated whether the leave is expected to run into it, and the network's statement is short enough that reading intent into it would be guesswork. The court date falls in the same month.
