Sports shorts Romo retires, joins top CBS broadcast team

Tony Romo is retiring and replacing another former quarterback in Phil Simms on the top NFL broadcasting team for CBS after choosing not to chase that elusive Super Bowl with a team other than the Cowboys.

Romo, who will be paired with play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz, considered multiple network offers along with whether he wanted to pursue a Super Bowl elsewhere after losing the starting job in Dallas last season, a person told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because Romo hasn’t discussed his plans publicly. A CBS spokeswoman did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

The departure of the all-time passing leader from the storied franchise has been expected since November, when Romo conceded the job to rookie Dak Prescott after missing 10 weeks with a back injury.

The Cowboys were in the middle of a franchise-record 11-game winning streak when Romo returned from the injury.

Dallas owner Jerry Jones told Romo before free agency opened that the team would release him to give him a chance to continue his career with another contender. But Dallas decided at the last minute to try to generate interest in a trade.

That move gave Romo more time to consider retirement, and the likelihood appeared to grow when he played in a golf tournament last week. Romo, who turns 37 this month, had given up his favorite hobby after a series of back injuries that included two surgeries in less than a year.

Romo, who was signed through 2019, had a $14 million base salary and a $24.7 million salary cap hit for the Cowboys this season. The expected roster move will reduce Dallas’ cap hit to about $19 million, likely spread over two seasons.

The franchise leader with 34,183 yards passing and 248 touchdowns, Romo never parlayed his regular-season success into deep playoff runs the way Hall of Famers and multiple Super Bowl winners Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman did before him.

Now Romo will follow Aikman into the broadcast booth. Aikman has been the top analyst with Fox, paired with Joe Buck, since 2002.

Former World Series MVP Pedro Guerrero had a massive stroke and is recovering in a hospital in New York, his wife said.

Roxanna Jimenez said her 60-year-old husband was taken to a hospital Monday. She said doctors initially declared him brain dead but a second opinion confirmed he was comatose. He was transferred to Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.

“It was his second massive stroke,” Jimenez said Tuesday by phone from New York to the radio show Grandes en los Deportes in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. “He’s recovering. The doctor said he can improve. He opened his eyes and is trying to communicate.”

Guerrero played 15 seasons in the majors with the Dodgers and Cardinals. The slugger was the 1981 World Series co-MVP with the Dodgers and played in five All-Star Games.

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley says Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray are leaving the NCAA champion Gamecocks to enter the WNBA draft.

Gray posted on Twitter that she was giving up a fifth year of college to go pro. Staley says as of last night, neither player had hired an agent.

“They both have aspirations to play pro and we’re happy that we gave them a platform to raise their stock in the draft,” Staley said at a news conference Tuesday on campus. “They both felt this was the best time for them to go.”

The league allows players up to five days before the April 13 draft to rescind their decision if they haven’t signed with an agent.