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Troy Aikman said in a radio appearance Thursday that it’s not “hard to figure out … what’s happened” between him and Monday Night Football broadcast partner Joe Buck earlier this week, before emphasizing that he will be “a free agent” once his contract with ESPN expires following the network’s Super Bowl broadcast in February.
Aikman appeared to publicly confirm Front Office Sports’s report that there has been tension between him and Buck over their respective contract talks with ESPN, and that the two had an argument before their broadcast of Monday night’s Bills-Rams game at SoFi Stadium.
“I think there’s probably a time and a place for all that to be discussed,” Aikman said Thursday morning on Dallas station 96.7 The Ticket. “I don’t know if now is the time. I don’t know that it’s hard to figure out kind of what’s happened. But 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. But I’m looking forward to whatever the rest of this year does hold and with the Super Bowl and all that and where my next landing spot might be.”
The Athletic reported last month that Buck had reached a new six-year deal with ESPN. Aikman has not received a formal offer, FOS reported Wednesday. ESPN signed Aikman and Buck to five-year deals in 2022.
FOS reported Buck “broke the ice” before Monday’s game on the unspoken tension between the two, and he and Aikman had an argument, a source said. It ultimately de-escalated, and the two had a broadcast in which viewers never would have been able to decipher that something was amiss.
The Hall of Fame quarterback could potentially be an offseason target for CBS, which has paired J.J. Watt with Jim Nantz on its No. 1 team after parting with Tony Romo. Amazon Prime Video reportedly has a new deal with Kirk Herbstreit, although the contract is believed to contain an escape mechanism.
It’s also possible Aikman could be a target for NFL teams potentially interested in him for a front office role. Aikman served as a consultant to the Dolphins last offseason. That led the NFL to make him subject to the same team-access rules this season in his broadcasting role that also apply to Tom Brady, based on Brady’s dual role as a Raiders part-owner and the analyst for Fox’s top broadcasting team, FOS first reported in August.
Aikman has a long history with the Cowboys but has been critical at times of the manner in which owner Jerry Jones runs the franchise and participates in football-related decisions.
The details of Aikman’s consulting arrangement with the Dolphins are not clear, so it’s not known whether he would be available to any other interested NFL teams.
It seems unlikely, though, that an NFL team would be willing to pay Aikman a salary comparable to what he makes in broadcasting, with his current contract at $18 million per year.
