Police bodycam footage from Tony Romo's OWI arrest on a Milwaukee interstate shows the former Cowboys quarterback refusing to start a field sobriety test until he finished a round of stretching exercises, a request the officer granted with a flat "go ahead dude."
The 46-year-old CBS analyst was pulled over on southbound I-43 after an officer observed him making an unsafe pass on the right and cutting across a gore, the striped buffer zone between highway lanes and an exit ramp. What followed, captured on the officer's body camera and obtained by the Daily Mail, was a prolonged roadside exchange in which Romo questioned the stop, cited his back surgeries, asked for his lawyer repeatedly, and refused a breath test, twice.
Romo told the officer he had consumed "zero" drinks and challenged her reasoning: "Because I'm coming from a golf course you think I'm drunk?" He had been playing in the Wisconsin Amateur Championship earlier that day, Fox News reported, and was stopped on a high-rise bridge on the interstate near his hometown of Burlington, Wisconsin.
When the female officer asked Romo to submit to a breath test, his answer was immediate.
"Oh no, we're not doing that. I've heard from all the lawyers 'don't ever do that'."
She offered a second time. He declined again: "No. Like I said I want my lawyer, for the eighth time." Wisconsin law allows officers to cite a driver for refusing a chemical intoxication test after arrest, and Romo was cited for exactly that, Fox News reported.
At the police station, where officers administered the standardized field sobriety tests, Romo insisted he needed to stretch first. He referenced two back surgeries multiple times and complained of pain. The officer let him go through his routine before proceeding. According to the arrest report, Romo performed "poorly" on the tests.
The bodycam footage also shows Romo interrupting the officer during her sobriety-test instructions, asking her to repeat them and provide demonstrations. He initially refused to exit his vehicle during the traffic stop and told the officer he would call his lawyer and film the interaction himself.
Her partner found small liquor bottles, referred to as "shooters", in Romo's backpack. When the officer mentioned them, Romo responded: "I don't think any of them were drank, right?"
Romo was handcuffed, transported to the station, and booked on one count of operating while intoxicated, first offense. His mugshot, in which he appeared to smirk, circulated widely. The New York Post reported that he was stopped around 8 p.m. on a Thursday night, booked, released, and given a court date of September 21.
Under Wisconsin law, a first-offense OWI is typically treated as a civil offense rather than a criminal charge. The Milwaukee County District Attorney's office confirmed this classification to Fox News. A first offense generally carries a fine of $150 to $300, a rounding error for a man earning $18 million a year from CBS.
CBS has not publicly commented on the arrest. Breitbart noted that Romo had already faced mounting criticism for his performance as the network's lead NFL color analyst before the arrest added a new problem to the pile. He is set to enter his tenth season in the broadcast booth this fall.
By Sunday, days after the arrest, Romo had withdrawn from the 56th Texas State Open, scheduled to tee off Monday at Cascades Country Club in Tyler, Texas. The tournament has been held in Tyler since 2018.
The club issued a measured statement to local station KLTV:
"Although we're disappointed he won't be joining us, we're still looking forward to an exciting week of competitive golf."
Romo has not made any public statement about the arrest beyond what the bodycam captured. Hours before the stop, he had spoken to TMJ4 News about his passion for competitive golf. The New York Post quoted him saying: "I'm competitive in both, I'm just better at football. It's the challenge of it. It's as tough as you're gonna play."
Romo spent 13 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, earned four Pro Bowl selections, and led the team to four postseason appearances between 2006 and 2015. He lost his starting job to then-rookie Dak Prescott in 2016 and retired shortly after, pivoting to a broadcasting career that initially drew praise for his ability to predict plays before the snap.
His personal life has stayed in the tabloids. He dated Jessica Simpson from 2007 to 2009. He later married Candice Crawford, a former broadcast journalist and past Miss Missouri, with whom he has three children. In December 2023, he made headlines of a different sort when he referred to Taylor Swift on air as the wife of Travis Kelce, months before the couple announced their engagement in August 2025 and married earlier this month.
The bodycam footage paints a picture of a man accustomed to controlling the room, requesting stretches, citing lawyers, questioning the officer's judgment, and declining every test that might produce a number. The officer, for her part, stayed even-keeled throughout.
When you make $18 million a year to talk on television, you can afford a good lawyer. Whether you can afford the reputational cost of a smirking mugshot and a bodycam reel is a different question, and one CBS will have to answer soon enough.
