Tony Romo was born in San Diego, California, and grew up in Burlington, Wisconsin, where he idolized Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre before eventually taking up football himself in high school. Lightly recruited out of college, he ended up at Eastern Illinois University, where he became a three-time conference Player of the Year and went undrafted into the NFL in 2003, signing with the Dallas Cowboys as a free agent. He spent his entire 14-season career in Dallas, taking over as starter in 2006 and becoming one of the most prolific passers in franchise history, setting Cowboys records for career passing yards and touchdowns and earning four Pro Bowl selections, though playoff success and postseason heartbreak defined much of the public narrative around him. After retiring in 2017, Romo moved almost immediately into the CBS broadcast booth as lead color analyst alongside Jim Nantz, quickly earning acclaim and a Sports Emmy for his ability to anticipate and call plays before they happened, reshaping expectations for what a modern NFL analyst could be.
