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Troy Aikman deserves a new contract. That’s not just my opinion. Ask his ESPN colleagues Michael Wilbon and Stephen A. Smith.
With play-by-play partner Joe Buck sitting pretty via a reported six-year, $108 million contract extension, ESPN’s star Monday Night Football game analyst is still twisting in the wind. Some of Aikman’s high-profile colleagues at ESPN have begun speaking out publicly.
Wilbon, one of the most respected voices in media, called out his bosses at the worldwide leader for not completing an extension with the best NFL game analyst in the business.
“You know who calls a game better than Troy Aikman, knuckleheads? NOBODY calls a game better than Troy Aikman!” declared Wilbon, as he signed off an episode of Pardon the Interruption with Tony Kornheiser earlier this week.
Smith, arguably the face of ESPN, “sincerely” wants ESPN to keep Aikman and Buck together. At 25 years and counting, they’re the longest-running broadcast duo on NFL TV. Did we mention the celebrated pair is poised to call ESPN’s first Super Bowl telecast on Feb. 14—after previously calling the Big Game six times for Fox Sports? No wonder Smith described them as the “A team” on his SiriusXM show Monday.
“They are the A team. Joe Buck, it don’t get no better, play-by-play. Excuse the double negative. It’s just the truth. And I feel the exact same way about Troy Aikman, who I love, who I’ve loved for years. That’s their business, that’s ESPN’s business, that’s ABC’s business, and all of that. I know they’ll be calling the Super Bowl this year,” said Smith per Awful Announcing.
The First Take star continued: “Troy Aikman is a three-time Super Bowl champion, an elite football mind whose credentials and résumé is as impeccable as they come, and it speaks for itself. I sincerely hope that we don’t lose him as a person that’s employed by ESPN, but if we do lose him, I want to wish him all the happiness in the world if he decides to go elsewhere. Because football must have Troy Aikman’s voice in it, he’s that special of a guy and a football mind, and I sincerely hope that we keep him.”
Wilbon and Smith have a point. The 59-year-old Aikman’s current five-year, $90 million deal expires after Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium. But the Pro Football Hall of Famer hasn’t received a formal contract offer, sources say. The pending free agent said in a Dallas radio interview last week that he’s already looking forward to his next “landing spot.”
It didn’t have to be this way. Aikman and the 57-year-old Buck are represented by the same powerful talent agency: CAA. They could have used their leverage to force a package deal. But when Buck went his own way, Aikman was left on his own. If ESPN management can’t—or won’t—come to terms, Aikman will likely be calling games for CBS Sports, Amazon Prime Video, or Netflix next season. Meanwhile, his 25-year run with Buck will be history.
Wilbon and Smith are two of the savviest operators in the business. They remember the bad old days, before ESPN hired Aikman and Buck away from Fox Sports in 2022. Back then, ESPN was viewed as having the weakest broadcast team among the NFL’s media partners. As a result, the sports cable giant routinely got the worst game schedule from the NFL despite paying more than any other league partner.
With their gravitas and Super Bowl résumé, Aikman and Buck helped ESPN repair its tattered relationship with NFL brass on Park Avenue. That has paid off in much stronger game matchups for MNF in recent years.
Consider ESPN’s MNF telecast of the Bills’ 37–34 win over the Rams on Oct. 12. The overtime thriller pulled a broadcast TV–like 19.8 million viewers. Through Week 5, MNF is off to its best viewership start since ESPN acquired the package in 2006, averaging 19.3 million viewers. That’s up 16% over the same period last year. Without Aikman, Buck, and sideline reporters Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge, does anybody think ESPN would score a matchup like Bills-Rams in Week 5? Or Broncos-Chiefs in Week 1? Color me skeptical. Why mess with that success?
Could the two sides be playing hardball before an eventual deal? Sure. Maybe the plain-spoken Aikman is negotiating publicly and doesn’t want to leave Buck and ESPN. Likewise, maybe ESPN brass is keeping its powder dry until its big Super Bowl presser at parent Disney’s sleek New York City headquarters on Dec. 1. ESPN could grandly announce it’s re-upped Aikman through its second Super Bowl in early 2031, and everybody would be happy.
It would be a nice, feel-good Disney script. But don’t bet on it. It’s getting ugly out there. We’re still dealing with human beings who are grappling emotionally with feelings of pride, betrayal, and anger. Things may have reached the point of no return for Aikman, Buck, and ESPN. As my Front Office Sports colleague Ryan Glasspiegel first reported, the “tension” over their respective contract situations sparked an argument between Aikman and Buck before Bills-Rams last week.
Cooler heads prevailed. Yes, the pair avoided the elephant in the broadcast booth during their last two MNF telecasts. But aside from the typical on-air bonhomie, something seems off to me. At times, the partners seem to have trouble looking each other in the eye. Aikman and Buck speak past each other, not to each other. As consummate pros, they’ve masked it well. But it’s a shame to see such a historic TV partnership ending in such a fashion.
Aikman deserves better. But, sadly, history is repeating itself. He gave his all to Fox for two decades. But during his last contract negotiation in 2022, management let him walk without making an offer. It was a fateful decision that reset the talent chessboard. Since that moment, ESPN has gone from worst to first among NFL broadcast booths.
As for ESPN management, Phil Simms believes the network has already made its decision on Aikman’s successor. “They’ve got their eye on somebody else,” he told Kay Adams. The former Giants QB knows whereof he speaks: Simms served as CBS’s lead game analyst for 19 seasons for the Tiffany Network. But Simms was blindsided when CBS demoted him to the studio in favor of the fresh-off-the-field Cowboys QB Tony Romo in 2017.
So who’s Simms’s mystery candidate? He didn’t say. But my sources point to Greg Olsen, the Fox game analyst who drew rave reviews for his call of Super Bowl LVII with Kevin Burkhardt in 2023 before being dropped to No. 2 behind Tom Brady, as the likeliest candidate.
Olsen’s contract with Fox is up after this season. He’s made no secret that he wants a No. 1 color role. Maybe ESPN wants to get younger in the MNF booth with the 41-year-old Olsen vs. Aikman, who turns 60 in November. As one well-placed source told me: “It has to be Olsen. He’s available, aggrieved, and has already been a [No. 1] analyst.”
What about Peyton and Eli Manning? They’re already under the aegis of the four letters via their ManningCast and multiple projects through Omaha Productions. But does either of the Manning brothers want the hassle of traveling when they already call a limited schedule of MNF games from home studios?
So I keep coming back to ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro’s game-changing talent raid on rival Fox in 2022. Maybe Pitaro and ESPN content czar Burke Magnus go ahead and make the obvious hire with Olsen. But they could also be playing 3D chess here while preparing to pull an okey-doke on all of us.
Could it be that ESPN is already targeting 37-year-old Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce for MNF? Hell, his older brother, Jason Kelce, is already an ESPN analyst. His younger brother—the husband of global pop superstar Taylor Swift—could draw millions of new female fans to MNF and the NFL. Then there’s 40-year-old Rams coach Sean McVay. He looks miserable after his 2–4 start this season. McVay was previously this close to joining Amazon Prime Video. The NFL now owns 10% of ESPN. Maybe ESPN figures Aikman has done his job at helping to repair their relationship with the Shield, and now it’s time for the next chapter of the iconic MNF.
Nothing lasts forever. But that doesn’t mean anybody can, or will, call MNF better than Aikman and Buck. Fair warning: If Aikman’s replacement flops, ESPN will have egg on its face worse than the Jason Witten–BoogerMobile fiasco in 2018. So here’s some free advice for the brass in Bristol. To paraphrase Celtics legend Red Auerbach: Sometimes, the best trades are the ones you don’t make.
