Tony Romo and CBS have parted ways after the former Cowboys quarterback was arrested for OWI in Wisconsin this past summer, the sides announced Friday. Romo first joined CBS as a color analyst after retiring from the Cowboys in 2017, and he had been on indefinite leave from CBS’s top NFL team this season.

—Ryan Glasspiegel

First Up

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ONE BIG FIG

Last-Second Signing

$200 million

The total value of the contract Jalen Duren agreed to with the Pistons late Thursday night after a lengthy holdout. Duren had until 11:59 p.m. ET to accept a one-year qualifying offer from Detroit worth $9.6 million that would have made him an unrestricted free agent next offseason, which was his main bargaining chip to try to extract more value from the Pistons’ long-term offer.

His five-year deal has a $40 million average annual value, which is eighth among centers, ahead of Alperen Şengün ($37.5 million), but behind Chet Holmgren ($47.8 million).

Last offseason, Detroit reportedly offered Duren an extension at about $20 million annually, but he chose not to sign as he was seeking closer to $30 million per year. He followed up with a career year in the 2025–26 season, making his first All-Star Game and helping the Pistons finish at the top of the Eastern Conference.

But his stock dropped in the playoffs, struggling as the No. 2 option beside Cade Cunningham. Detroit was eliminated in the second round.

STATUS REPORT

Two Up, Two Push

PWHL ⬆ Alongside the league’s announcement of its 2026–27 schedule, it also rolled out some other changes. The PWHL teams—now at 12 after the addition of four during the offseason—will be split into Eastern and Western conferences. Each team will now play 18 games in their own conference, with the remaining 12 as interconference games. The playoff format is also tweaked: Eight teams will compete in three rounds, which adds another round and four more teams to the postseason from the previous format. The changes mark a new era for the PWHL, which is finding its way out of infancy and courting a new era of growth. The four new franchises—San Jose, Detroit, Hamilton, and Las Vegas—remain unnamed for now.

Manchester City ⬆⬇ The embattled club filed its formal appeal after being found guilty by the Premier League of breaching financial regulations over a decade-long period. “The Club’s firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe,” City wrote in a statement. The club is accused of a scheme to artificially inflate its revenue and reduce its costs by nearly $1.2 billion (more than £900 million), reporting sponsorship revenue that actually originated from City’s ownership group and writing “sham contracts” for players and managers that misrepresented the true value of their pay. 

Jack Hughes ⬆⬇ During the Devils’ season opener, the New Jersey star took a benchside interview with ESPN’s AJ Mleczko. Hughes, who has been plagued by injuries, including accidentally cutting himself at a team dinner last year, didn’t appreciate Mleczko’s remark at the end: “Well, it’s great to see you healthy. Let’s wrap you in bubble wrap and use plastic cutlery this year.” Hughes, who already has an uneven relationship with the media, wasn’t pleased. “I think that’s a weird joke,” he said, then skated off. Fan reaction has been mixed, with some people saying on X/Twitter that Mleczko’s comment was uncalled for, while others think Hughes was being too sensitive. He scored the game-winning goal in OT.

PTPA ⬆ A New York federal judge denied the tennis tours’ and Grand Slams’ motion to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit lodged against them by the Professional Tennis Players Association, a fledgling players’ union cofounded by Novak Djokovic in 2020. The lawsuit, filed in 2025, accused the ATP, WTA, and four Grand Slams of colluding to suppress competitors, deny players their fair share of prize money, and lock players into a grueling 11-month schedule that results in excessive injuries. Judge Margaret Garnett of the Southern District of New York found that the claims were plausible enough for the lawsuit to proceed to discovery. 

ONE FUN THING

Fire and Ice

If you liked Heated Rivalry or Off Campus, you might want to check out the NHL’s new campaign called “Hot for Hockey.” The series turns real-life league news into short audio stories told in the style of the genre. The 30- to 90-second pieces don’t describe any actual romance between players, but they lean in to evocative language and dramatic production elements, like soft-piano backing music. Seven installments featuring six players—Connor McDavid, Trevor Zegras, Sebastian Aho, Jack Eichel, Kyle Connor, and Mika Zibanejad—have already been released on Spotify. The league is enlisting hockey romance authors to help write the pieces.

“Since joining the Golden Knights, Jack Eichel has given Vegas a lot to love. He helped bring the city its first taste of the [Stanley] Cup in 2023, but Vegas is thirsty for more,” begins a “Hot for Hockey” story titled “Jack of Hearts with Jack Eichel.” It continues: “Can Jack give the city yet another reason to fall even further for him? Don’t bet against it. When you’ve got the jack of hearts, the odds are always in your favor. Tune in to the NHL all season long for more hockey love.”

The NHL told Front Office Sports that players agreed to participate in the “Hot for Hockey” campaign before its release. “This was a small way to give a playful nod to something that’s clearly going on in the cultural zeitgeist—among many different marketing activations,” a spokesperson said.

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