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📺 Michaels back for Year 5. Legendary announcer Al Michaels told SBJ that he will be back on the call next season as Amazon Prime Video celebrates its fifth season as the exclusive home for Thursday Night Football. Michaels just broadcast a Packers-Bears thriller in Chicago for the streamer on Saturday, and would call another playoff game in 2027 if he sticks around.

🏈 Romo, Fowler struggle. Two of the top broadcasters in football struggled on the biggest stage this weekend, as ESPN’s Chris Fowler missed several key details during Thursday night’s Fiesta Bowl and CBS analyst Tony Romo stumbled through multiple big moments in the first half of Bills-Jaguars in Jacksonville on Saturday.

🐦‍⬛ Ryan (back) to ATL. Falcons legend Matt Ryan is leaving CBS Sports to become the team’s President of Football. After numerous conflicting reports last week, Ryan officially made his final appearance in The NFL Today studio on Sunday morning as he leaves to take the front office role with his former team.

🏀 NBA coaches speak out. Two of the more outspoken veteran coaches in the NBA, Doc Rivers and Steve Kerr, once again took time in postgame press conferences to address a major news story, this time the killing of Renee Good by ICE officers in Minneapolis. Rivers called the incident “straight-up murder,” while Kerr accused the federal government of lying about what happened.

Everything was lining up for Tony Romo.

The CBS NFL game analyst and longtime partner Jim Nantz scored perhaps the biggest game of the weekend, with Josh Allen, the most famous player in the postseason field, a road underdog in Jacksonville against the Jaguars, the nerds’ pick for the Super Bowl.

Romo has chronicled just about every major moment of Allen’s career and knows him and his game as well as any broadcaster alive. The game should have given Romo a stage to flash his predictive brilliance and even get away with the fanboy hype he espouses for the league’s top QBs.

And while nobody at CBS would ever say it publicly, it was nice not to have the acclaimed Ian Eagle-J.J. Watt booth on air for anyone to compare to.

The Jags and Bills even obliged with a great game down on the field.

Despite all of that favoring him, Romo somehow still underperformed the lowered expectations that NFL fans have for him these days. Romo’s regression has been a storyline all season, but Sunday was a new low.

The former Dallas Cowboys QB began with a meandering rant before opening kickoff, in which he misstated who was the favorite in the game. Later, he indicated that whichever team won the game would be capable of winning the Super Bowl. Correct!

To close the first half, Romo butchered a goal-line touchdown by Buffalo by claiming the referees had blown the play dead. By the time Romo tried to call rules analyst Gene Steratore in to clarify, the moment had passed him by.

At one point in the second half, Romo opined that Jags’ QB Trevor Lawrence “felt like” he was in his eighth season rather than his fifth. No explanation given. Sure.

On a touchdown run by Allen late, Romo described the Buffalo star cradling the ball by saying, “You’re not touching my baby!”

These are just a handful of examples that likely do not fully illustrate how poor Romo was on Sunday. The problem is not any one incident. In fact, Romo and Nantz partially redeemed themselves down the stretch, including the drive that finished with Allen’s “baby” run.

The problem is Romo’s lack of focus. Few announcers are so aimless that they can take viewers out of great games. Multiple times during Jags-Bills, Romo’s mistakes were so outlandish that they distracted from the action on the field.

Many have called Romo unprepared. But a player turned analyst as experienced as Romo should at least be able to call the game on the field once it revs up. Romo’s mistakes went deeper than merely not knowing each team’s schematic preferences.

With that Eagle-Watt booth looming, new ownership at CBS, and a fresh opening in The NFL Today studio, each of Romo’s poor performances is magnified. As of now, there is now reputable noise that Romo and Nantz might be demoted (and Nantz has said he wants to keep announcing The Masters, at least, for another decade). Any more games like Sunday’s in Jacksonville could change that in a hurry.

Whether in the debate surrounding the College Football Playoff or the programming of national sports shows day to day each fall, the established default for years has been that the SEC is the best and most important conference in college football.

The SEC, however, will not have an entrant in the CFP championship game next Monday night after Miami and Indiana earned their way to the Orange Bowl.

Awful Announcing's Ben Axelrod explored the evolving reputation of the SEC and whether sports media will catch up — or whether the conference will become college football’s version of the Dallas Cowboys.

Click to read more coming off last week’s CFP clashes.

“I understand Lane like I understand my 13-year-old daughter Gracie. I know what his motivations are. … Lane’s only motivation, forever and always, first and foremost, is going to be Lane.” - On3 reporter Ben Garrett, whom Lane Kiffin confronted on-field last November, describing the former Ole Miss coach.

“I do think there has been a rush to negativity by a lot of the media that covers our sport.” - MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on the possibility of a lockout in 2027, with the league’s collective bargaining agreement set to expire in December.

“Don’t be a sniveling idiot! There’s pass…. interference! Have the guts to call it or criticize your colleagues down on the field.” - Michael Wilbon was none too pleased with fellow ESPNer, rules analyst Bill LeMonnier, for his breakdown of the final play of last week’s Fiesta Bowl.

“We’ll see where this might go, but I’ve really enjoyed it.” - ESPN’s Troy Aikman, discussing his advisory role in the Miami Dolphins’ GM search, shortly before news broke that he would also help the team find its next head coach.

While Tony Romo struggled in Jacksonville, his rival analyst over on Fox couldn’t have been better.

Tom Brady delivered one of his best showings ever on the call in Philadelphia for Eagles-49ers on Sunday, sharply weighing in on everything from team tendencies to the weather to the relationship between a coach and his star receiver:

Nobody would call Brady perfect yet, nor the best in the booth. And besides, broadcasting is subjective. People have their favorites.

But whereas Brady began his broadcasting career sounding closer to a football genius robot narrating a game, he is starting to sound more like a true analyst and storyteller.

Click to read more at Awful Announcing on Brady’s big day and where he shined most alongside Kevin Burkhardt.