Jerry Jones signed Tony Romo to the Dallas Cowboys in 2003 after he went undrafted. After 14 seasons, 4x Pro Bowls, a Walter Payton Award, and many more honors with the franchise, Romo transitioned to broadcasting as an analyst. And now, almost a decade later, he finds himself in a complicated situation with his employer, CBS, following his OWI arrest.

In a recent interview with Fox, Jerry Jones was asked to share his thoughts on the concerns surrounding Tony Romo. The Cowboys owner responded by singing praises of the former Cowboys player.

“I love him,” said Jones. “I love what he’s about. I love his character. I love his love of sport. And he’s a very, very unique talent. And the real question is — and I don’t even have to ask what the answer is: Do you think Tony Romo knows how to get up when he gets knocked down? He had a life of that. And absolutely one of his greatest attributes is that he can handle adversity.

“And so this is something that he will work through. He is a unique talent. His vision was just mesmerizing when he was a player. But he sees things and can articulate it so instantly. He has that skill. It’s made him a great, great portrayer of the story of football games. So, obviously, I’m a big fan of his, big fan of his family, and let me tell you right now, he’s as real as he sounds. He feels every downtime, he feels every uptime.”

From his comments alone, it’s clear JJ loves Romo. And Jerry’s fondness for Tony Romo may actually play a crucial role in saving the latter’s broadcasting career.

On July 23, a Milwaukee County Sheriff’s deputy observed Romo’s Jeep driving erratically and making unsafe lane changes. Upon stopping him, the deputy reported that Romo had red, glassy eyes and carried a strong alcohol odor.

Then, after failing to complete Standardized Field Sobriety Tests and refusing to submit to a preliminary breathalyzer, Romo received three total citations: OWI (first offense), refusal to take an intoxication test, and unsafe passing in a gore area, and has been scheduled to appear in court on September 21.

Following these developments, CBS Sports announced that “Tony Romo is on leave from his role at CBS Sports until further notice.”

Shortly after the arrest, Le Batard on The Le Batard Show made some interesting observations about Tony Romo’s CBS dynamic, noting that Romo’s action can make it easy for a network already looking to get rid of someone.

“The evolution of the game changes so much that once he (Tony) lost that parlor trick, what was Tony Romo’s stock started going down with everyone, including his employers who reportedly had an intervention because they didn’t think he was working hard enough at what he was doing.

“Given that his employers had to stage what was called an intervention to get him to work harder. Now you have an incident like this that doesn’t have obviously the kind of shame that would end someone like Mark Sanchez’s career, but it has a shame involved that if you were looking to if you were looking for a reason to get rid of somebody, this kind of publicity is reason enough.”

Jerry Jones, as one of the owners in the NFL, carries indirect influence over network broadcasting decisions. Jerry has reshaped NFL broadcasting before. In 1993, he helped orchestrate Fox’s historic bid for NFC rights. So, broadcast networks like CBS (owned by Paramount) are ultimately beholden to NFL owners to maintain multi-billion-dollar rights deals.

Hence, if an influential owner pushes back on a network decision, it can alter executive strategy. And considering Jerry Jones’ bond with Tony Romo, it will be interesting to see if he intervenes on a potential contract termination decision from CBS against Romo.