Tony Romo will finally rescue us from Phil Simms and become top analyst at CBS

Tony Romo has decided his football career is over, and he’s set to walk straight into another nice job. Romo will replace Phil Simms as the lead analyst for CBS and be paired with Jim Nantz. CBS announced the news Tuesday, confirming an earlier report by John Ourand of Sports Business Journal.

“We know Tony will quickly develop into a terrific analyst, and alongside Jim Nantz, will become a must-listen for fans each week,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said in a statement.

Getting Romo was a big coup for CBS, who had to outbid Fox for his services. Fox had hoped Romo would sign on to replace John Lynch — who left to become the general manager of the 49ers — as the analyst for the network’s No. 2 broadcast team, according to Ourand. But Romo’s former teammate Troy Aikman in the top analyst spot meant that the new addition was unlikely to move up from No. 2 anytime soon.

Instead, Romo shoots straight to the top of the chain at CBS and bumps Simms from the top spot. Romo, alongside Nantz and Tracy Wolfson, will be the top announcing team on CBS, anchoring Sunday afternoon games and the networks’ Thursday Night Football broadcasts.

At CBS, Romo will also be on air for the Cowboys’ Thanksgiving game, he may get the opportunity to do golf coverage in the future, and he’s even set to be a color commentator for a Super Bowl in Feb. 2019.

Simms began his broadcasting career at NBC, but has been with CBS since 1998 and has long been paired with Nantz. He was the color commentator for six Super Bowls broadcasted by CBS and two times with NBC. Simms was even the analyst on four Madden NFL video games before he was replaced for the most recent game.

His future with CBS is unclear.

“We are discussing with Phil his future role with CBS Sports,” McManus said.

But despite his extensive experience, Simms was often the butt of jokes for his commentary. There’s even a Twitter account that exists only to tweet ridiculous, 100 percent real quotes from Simms during games:

We don’t know yet how good Romo’s broadcasting chops are, but he’s the alternative to Simms that we’ve been waiting years for.

Tony Romo once saved Dallas but is now retiring