Why Aren’t Jim Nantz and Tony Romo Calling the Colts-Bills Wild-Card Game?
CBS stars Jim Nantz and Tony Romo will be reunited when the 2020-21 NFL playoffs begin this weekend.
Nantz and Romo, who have formed one of the most popular sports media duos in recent years, will call a game during wild-card round weekend.
In news that may surprise some fans, Nantz and Romo aren’t calling the matchup between Philip Rivers’ Indianapolis Colts and Josh Allen’s Buffalo Bills on Saturday, January 9.
Here’s where CBS’ No. 1 team will be during the wild-card round, as well as which announcers were assigned to the Colts-Bills game.
The 2020-21 NFL playoffs begin this weekend
What was arguably the strangest NFL campaign in modern league history has reached the postseason.
Fourteen total teams — and seven in each conference — reached the playoffs this year. The NFL expanded the postseason from 12 teams to 14 this year, a change that could stay for the years to come.
As a result, only one team in each conference earned a bye week. Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers will sit out the wild-card round in the NFC, while Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are doing the same in the AFC.
Each of the league’s four major networks — CBS, ESPN, Fox, and NBC — will all air games on wild-card weekend.
Jim Nantz and Tony Romo will call the Bears-Saints game
Jim Nantz and Tony Romo are back in the booth together for wild-card weekend.
Well, they’re together to a certain extent. Romo will call the Bears-Saints game remotely, while Nantz and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson will both be on-site in New Orleans.
Romo sat out Week 17 because of COVID-19 protocols. Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, a longtime analyst on The NFL Today, filled in for Romo to close the regular season.
Nickelodeon will also air a unique simulcast of the Bears-Saints game. Los Angeles Clippers radio voice Noah Eagle — the son of CBS announcer Ian Eagle — and former NFL wide receiver Nate Burleson will work that game.
Several Nickelodeon actors are scheduled to join Eagle and Burleson for that game, which is aimed at younger audiences.
Who is calling the Colts-Bills game instead of Nantz and Romo?
Interestingly, Jim Nantz and Tony Romo will call an NFC wild-card game to open the playoffs.
As a result, CBS assigned Ian Eagle, Charles Davis, and Evan Washburn — the network’s No. 2 team — the Colts-Bills game. That matchup opens wild-card weekend and is the Bills’ first home postseason game since December 1996.
Buffalo has not won a home playoff game since December 1995.
John Sadak and former NFL offensive lineman Ross Tucker will call the game on Westwood One’s nationally-syndicated radio simulcast.
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