A deep bench led to Brent Musburger exiting CBS; Could the same be true for Tony Romo?

With CBS’s decision to suspend Tony Romo indefinitely, one is reminded of a similar decision the network made 36 years.

Back in 1990 CBS was in a similar position as today, having to decide whether to keep one of its top broadcasters. Brent Musburger’s $2 million-a-year contract was due to be renewed that year. He was the face of CBS Sports, and he had come a long way since first joining the network full-time as the host of The NFL Today 15 years earlier.

In 1975 new CBS Sports president Bob Wussler wanted The NFL Today to be the first pregame show to go live. He also wanted it to have the first black football analyst (Irv Cross) and the first woman co-host (Phyllis George). A year later he added Jimmy The Greek Snyder to discuss point spreads and gambling. Musburger was the one who made it all work. He invented the position of studio host as we know it today, and that first year The NFL Today won an astounding 13 Emmy Awards.

Musburger’s popularity grew along with the show’s and by 1990 he had his brand on just about every major event CBS Sports did. Besides The NFL Today, he was the lead broadcaster for the NBA on CBS, NCAA Football, the Belmont Stakes and the wrap-around host for coverage of the U.S. Open and the Masters.  Plus, he was due to be the lead on CBS’s newly acquired Major League Baseball and the ’92 and ’94 Winter Olympic Games.

Back in the early days of The NFL Today, Ted Shaker was the program’s producer. He and Brent used to drive together to the studio every Sunday morning from their homes in Connecticut. By 1990 Shaker had moved up to become the network’s lone executive producer and in that role he built a deep bench behind Musburger. That bench included Jim Nantz, James Brown, Greg Gumbel, Andrea Joyce, Brad Nessler, Verne Lundquist, and Lesley Visser. Shaker asked Brent to give up some of those plum assignments, but Brent refused.

Imagine you were the manager of the New York Yankees and you had four terrific starting pitchers. But instead of rotating them every fourth day you started the same guy every game and the other three just sat in the bullpen. That’s the dilemma Shaker and CBS Sports’ president Neal Pilson faced. The starting pitchers were Musburger, Nantz, Brown, and Gumbel, but only Brent was handed the ball.

Musburger had become what CBS’s NFL producer Terry O’Neil described as an “anchor monster.” Aside from that, he had a habit of listening in to the rehearsals of others about to report news on The NFL Today. He’d then make it seem like he was the one reporting that news. He would often listen in to Pat Summerall and Tom Brookshire rehearsing their snippet for the show’s opening whip-around, then lead into them with what he heard. NFL Today Producer Mike Pearl said Brent had a bad habit of “stealing the headline.” Summerall and Brookshire became so mad that Pearl had to separate them at a production meeting during the playoffs.

Brent did the same when Jimmy The Greek Snyder was rehearsing his “Greek’s Grapevine” segment. Jimmy was going to report that Notre Dame was about to hire a high school football coach. But Brent beat him to the punch while throwing it to him. The Greek was left tongue-tied and later that night it led to the famous fight between the two of them.

In another instance during a halftime report he blindsided Jayne Kennedy by asking her to read the scores, knowing she had never done so.

“He (Brent) became harder and harder to deal with,” Shaker said. “We decided we needed to move forward.” That led to their decision not to renew Musburger’s deal in 1990. It was a decision that shocked the industry. And it turned out that Shaker’s bench proved to be very strong indeed, with Jim Nantz, James Brown, Greg Gumbel, Andrea Joyce and Verne Lundquist all voted into the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame.

Current CBS Sports president David Berson has said that he, too, has “a deep bench.” Yes, J.J. Watt appears to be the right choice to replace Tony Romo this season. The reviews for Watt’s first season in the booth were superlative and working alongside Jim Nantz he could be even better. But calling back-up analysts Ross Tucker, Trent Green and others a “deep bench” seems premature.

It would be hard to say that CBS’s 2026 bench is anywhere near as deep as the one Shaker and Pilson had in 1990. But then again, no one knew 36 years ago that Nantz, Brown, Gumble, Joyce and Lundquist would all wind up in the Hall of Fame.

Rich Podolsky has been an established writer and reporter since the 1970s, covering the Miami Dolphins and writing for The NFL Today. He has been a staff writer for CBS Sports and has written for The Philadelphia Daily News, The Palm Beach Post, The Wilmington News-Journal and ESPN. He has written about the business of sports on television many times including his recent books “Madden & Summerall—How They Revolutionized NFL Broadcasting,” and “You Are Looking Live!”

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