Troy Aikman isn’t denying that there is tension between him and longtime broadcast partner Joe Buck over Aikman’s contract situation.
The former Cowboys quarterback, who has been Buck’s NFL booth partner since 2002 and moved with Buck to ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” in 2022, addressed the tension with Buck during an appearance on 96.7 The Ticket Thursday morning after Front Office Sports reported the two got into a pre-game argument on Monday in Los Angeles.
“There’s probably a time and a place for all that. I don’t know if now is the time,” Aikman said on the station, per the Dallas Morning News. “I don’t know if it’s hard to figure out kind of what happened. I’ll broadcast through this season and I’ll be a free agent at the end of the year and kind of see what happens. I’m looking forward to whatever the rest of this season does hold and the Super Bowl and all that and where my next landing spot may be.”
Buck, 57, “broke the ice” Monday with Aikman regarding the contract issue, FOS reported, prompting an argument that de-escalated. That took place before the pair called the Bills’ overtime win over the Rams. Videos posted online show Aikman and Buck on the field before Monday’s game, though the argument wasn’t captured.
Buck has signed a new six-year, roughly $108 million contract, per The Athletic, while Aikman’s deal will expire after ESPN’s first Super Bowl broadcast in February. Aikman said he has not heard from ESPN brass regarding a new contract.
And his latest comments, which mention looking for his “next landing spot,” suggest he’s prepared to move on.
The Athletic reported last month that ESPN was planning to wait to address Aikman’s contract situation after the Super Bowl. It’s unclear why they wanted to wait on Aikman and not Buck, unless ESPN simply wants to move on from the three-time Super Bowl champion.
Bringing Buck and Aikman in on big-money deals in 2022 solidified ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” booth after years of failed experiments since Mike Tirico left for NBC following the 2015 season. The network cycled through Sean McDonough, Joe Tessitore and Steve Levy as play-by-players before signing Buck, with Booger McFarland, Jason Witten, Brian Griese and Louis Riddick getting chances as analysts after Jon Gruden returned to coaching following the 2017 season.
Letting Aikman walk would bring uncertainty back to the booth, though perhaps ESPN has an eye on Greg Olsen, a looming free agent who was briefly Fox Sports’ No. 1 booth analyst before Tom Brady joined Kevin Burkhardt in 2024.
Tony Romo is a free agent after parting ways with CBS earlier this month due to his July drunk driving arrest. JJ Watt replaced Romo alongside Jim Nantz in CBS’s top booth.
