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After CBS announced that JJ Watt will be the permanent replacement for Tony Romo on its top NFL broadcast team with Jim Nantz, the chessboard is shrinking for potential destinations for Troy Aikman.
Front Office Sports first reported last week that Aikman and Joe Buck have had tension since The Athletic broke the news in September that Buck has signed a six-year extension with ESPN worth more than $100 million, while Aikman has not received a formal offer to return. The tensions boiled over at Monday Night Football last week when Buck and Aikman had an argument in the announce booth before the game. The situation ultimately de-escalated and they worked the Rams-Bills overtime tilt with no issues evident to viewers.
Aikman is arguably the best color commentator not just in the NFL, but all of sports—and his options are dwindling if he is going to be an announcer next season. In addition to the Watt news, Tom Brady and Cris Collinsworth are locked in at Fox and NBC, respectively, on multi-year deals.
Presuming Aikman’s time at ESPN is indeed coming to an end, Amazon’s Prime Video is the only other full-time NFL package left. The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported that the streamer has agreed to a wonky deal with incumbent analyst Kirk Herbstreit, where there are outs each year. However, Marchand later clarified that Amazon would be on the hook for the first year of the deal if it moves on from the former Ohio State quarterback before next season.
Amazon reportedly covets Sean McVay in the event that he steps away from the Rams. Nevertheless, a hypothetical booth of Ian Eagle—who calls NBA games for Amazon—paired with Aikman would immediately vault Prime Video’s broadcast booth into the top echelon of the league’s media partners.
The other possible option for Aikman is Netflix, which has a limited schedule of just five games, but all of them—at least this season—are in marquee spots. The streaming service had Rams-49ers on the second night of the season in Australia, in addition to a game on Thanksgiving Eve, a Christmas doubleheader, and a Week 18 game to be determined. Luke Kuechly is working alongside Noah Eagle on Netflix’s lead NFL announce team this season.
A return to the broadcast booth, however, might not be Aikman’s only option. At the NFL owners meetings earlier this week, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones endorsed his former quarterback for a front office leadership position, should he choose to pursue one.
“Troy is very capable,” Jones said. “And he’s so really, relatively speaking, he’s in his youth as careers go. And he’s very capable of doing any one of a number of things, certainly anything to do with football. I don’t know of any area, short of getting back out on the field. … that Troy Aikman wouldn’t be qualified and competent to go into.”
Aikman worked as a consultant for the Dolphins this past offseason, but the arrangement is not ongoing.
