Troy Aikman is slated to call Super Bowl LXI as a color commentator for ESPN in February.
After that? Who knows.
An inductee of both the college and pro football halls of fame, Aikman has been in the booth with play-by-play announcer Joe Buck for 25 years — at Fox for the first two decades and on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” since 2022. Based on comments Aikman made Thursday morning, that could change after the legendary UCLA and Dallas Cowboys quarterback’s contract runs out following the current NFL season.
“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,” Aikman said during an appearance on KTCK-FM (96.7) in Dallas-Fort Worth. “But I’m looking forward to whatever the rest of this year does hold, with the Super Bowl and all that and where my next landing spot may be.”
Buck’s contract with ESPN was also set to expire after the season, but he and the network agreed to a six-year, $108-million extension, according to the Athletic. ESPN has not announced the deal.
“We won’t be addressing talent contract specifics publicly before the Super Bowl,” ESPN executive vice president of communications Josh Krulewitz said in a statement at the time. The network declined to comment for this article.
On Wednesday, Front Office Sports reported “unspoken tension” between Aikman and Buck since the latter’s contract extension. Before Monday night’s Buffalo Bills-Rams game at SoFi Stadium, FOS reports, Buck brought up the matter to his broadcast partner, and an argument ensued. The situation reportedly had cooled by the time they went on the air.
Aikman laughed when that report was mentioned during his radio interview.
“Well, I think there’s probably a time and a place for all that to be discussed,” he said. “I don’t know if now is the time. I don’t know that it’s hard to figure out kind of what happened.”
Plenty can happen between now and February. If Aikman is to move on from ESPN, however, a possible landing spot could be at CBS where J.J. Watt has filled in as lead analyst since the network put Tony Romo on indefinite leave this summer after his arrest on suspicion of operating while intoxicated. On Oct. 2, CBS Sports announced it and Romo had “mutually agreed to part ways.”
A possible replacement for Aikman on “MNF” could be Greg Olsen, a one-time lead analyst at Fox before being bumped down to the network’s No. 2 team to make room for Tom Brady. Olsen’s contract with Fox expires after this season as well.
Or ESPN could find someone from within the company. Jason Kelce and Kurt Warner handle some color analyst duties for international games on NFL Network, which was acquired by ESPN earlier this year. Also, Front Office Sports speculated Monday on X that Pat McAfee‘s alternative Super Bowl LXI broadcast on ESPNU could serve as a “MNF” audition for the host.
McAfee, however, responded in the post’s comment section, saying that scenario “isn’t real.”
“There’s been zero conversation about this,” McAfee wrote.
The post ESPN’s Troy Aikman says he’ll be a ‘free agent’ after season, laughs about reported tension with Joe Buck appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
