Tony Romo jets back to CBS job on private plane after Safeway Open fizzle
Tony Romo, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback-turned-TV -commentator, will return to the CBS broadcasting booth on Sunday after failing to make the cut at the Safeway Open in Napa, California, following two rounds of play.
To get there in time, he'll be paying big bucks for a private plane.
The amateur golfer, who is currently in the final year of his CBS contract, finished four strokes over par, with the cut set at two under par. Romo was a 50,000-to-1 underdog to win the tournament, according to Westgate Las Vegas Superbook.
CBS had a backup plan, however, if fortune had smiled on the 39-year-old Romo. Boomer Esiason was initially set to replace him.
Instead, Romo will take a private jet back to Chicago for Sunday’s Vikings-Bears game, a roughly 1,800-mile trip which, according to Prince Jets, can cost from $24,997 to $84,011, depending on the charter package.
Romo’s CBS broadcasting partner Jim Nantz, who will be calling the game alongside Romo on Sunday, praised his budding golf career on Friday.
“I have a lot of faith in Tony being able to pull off whatever he wants to do,” Nantz told USA Today. “The same thing that made him an undrafted free agent out of Eastern Illinois and go on to set every passing record for the Dallas Cowboys that exists, same thing that took a guy from the playing field to the broadcast booth and into the ‘A position’ – and again met with a lot of doubts and critics – and proved to be a generational broadcaster from the analyst side, that’s where it’s coming from. He’s proven people wrong his whole life.”
The Vikings-Bears game starts at 4:25 PM.