• Loading stock data...
Friday, June 6, 2025
opinion
Media

ESPN’s Aikman Calls Foul on Mahomes for Flopping

Troy Aikman criticized NFL refs for giving Patrick Mahomes preferential treatment, then praised them when they didn’t do it again after a Mahomes flop. Other broadcasters should take note.

Broadcaster Troy Aikman on the sideline of an NFL game.
Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Troy Aikman’s sometimes brutal honesty makes him the best NFL game analyst on TV in my book. 

Aikman and his partner, Joe Buck, proved again why they’re the best NFL booth duo during ABC/ESPN’s coverage of the Chiefs 23–14 AFC divisional playoff win over the Texans.

Aikman summed up the disgust of many fans and media observers at the flopping of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes on Saturday night.

With the Chiefs leading in the fourth quarter, Mahomes slowed down near the sideline—seemingly waiting for a push in the back from a Texans defender. When he got one, the three-time Super Bowl champ fell theatrically to the ground, begging for a 15-yard penalty.

Neither Aikman nor Buck were buying the act. They defended the officials for not throwing a flag after the zebras had already handed Mahomes two questionable calls earlier in the game.

“You see, rather than just run out of bounds, he slows down,” Aikman noted about Mahomes’s effort to draw a penalty. “That’s been the frustration. I get it, I understand. That’s been the frustration of these defensive players around the league.”

Earlier in the game, in the third quarter, there was also a phantom foul on the Texans. As Mahomes slithered and scrambled, he got sandwiched by a couple of Houston defenders. The hit looked worse than it was. Still, the refs threw the flag for a helmet-to-helmet hit.

Aikman had the cojones to call out not just the refs, but the league: “Aww, come on. I mean, he’s a runner,” Aikman said. “I could not disagree with that one more. He barely gets hit.”

You might expect the former Cowboys superstar to err on the side of defending his fellow quarterback, but he didn’t. Instead, Aikman called on the NFL to tackle the flopping problem.

“They’ve got to address that in the offseason. You can’t, as a quarterback, run around and play games with defenders, then be able to draw a penalty,” he warned.

Buck agreed with Aikman, noting it was similar to a questionable call that went against the Texans in the first quarter. “Really it was the two Houston defenders hitting each other. Mahomes barely got touched,” Buck said.

As my FOS colleague Ryan Glasspiegel texted me after the play: “Troy really has become America’s conscience.”

I also liked how Aikman and Buck chortled over the Chiefs punter running out of bounds at the end of the game for a safety, creating a back door Texans cover given the 9.5 point spread. “Al Michaels is smiling right now,” cracked Aikman. I’m sure millions of sports bettors screamed. But you just knew Monday Night Countdown host Scott Van Pelt was salivating over fodder for his next “Bad Beats” segment.

Look, I know Mahomes is the face of the NFL. He’s my favorite player to watch. But as the Chiefs try to make history as the first team to win three straight Super Bowls, there’s a perception NFL refs are giving the Golden Boy—and the Chiefs—preferential treatment. It’s not a good look for the league’s most popular and powerful sports league.

Tom Brady at Fox, Tony Romo at CBS, and Cris Collinsworth at NBC should all take note of how Aikman and Buck served the viewers Saturday night. 

The referees aren’t sacred cows to be defended at all costs. They’re humans who make mistakes. They’re also employees who give the benefit of the doubt to superstars, the way NFL refs previously did with Brady and NBA zebras did with Michael Jordan.

I’ve given Brady, Fox’s $37.5 million–a-year man, better reviews for his first season in the broadcast booth than most sports media critics. 

But I think if Tom Terrific lets it fly by saying what he really thinks during Fox’s Lions-Commanders broadcast Saturday night, it would reassure viewers he’s on their side—not in the pocket of his fellow NFL owners.

The question of Brady’s conflict of interest as a broadcaster and now a Raiders part-owner is a fair one, and it comes down to whether he can really do his job effectively with the (loosely enforced) restrictions against him. To do his job effectively, he must be able to speak honestly about officiating calls, like Aikman did today.

Brady will call Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9. A strong performance in New Orleans would go a long way toward dispelling all the speculation he won’t return to Fox next season.

Separately from Aikman and Buck, I also think ESPN left some coverage opportunities on the table. The network did a nice job showing the shocking scene when Kris Boyd of the Texans shoved his special teams coach Frank Ross. Even better, they showed the moment that made Ross go nuts (Boyd threw his helmet on the field, drawing a 15-yard penalty). But ESPN, inexplicably, never updated viewers again on the Boyd situation, which generated national coverage.

My sources tell me ESPN producers in the truck discussed having their sideline reporters go back, but the action moved on. Missed opportunity.

Still, Aikman and Buck proved why they were entrusted to call six Super Bowl telecasts during their long partnership at Fox. If their performance Saturday was a preview of ESPN’s first-ever Super Bowl telecast coming after the 2026 season, then ESPN will be just fine when it finally gets to air its first Big Game.

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

NiJaree Canady

Stacked Texas Tech NIL Roster Now a Win Away From Softball Title

The Red Raiders have a winning formula with NIL and recruiting.
ESPN has not let NBA Countdown “marinate” as talent changes too frequently, ex-host Michelle Beadle tells FOS.
breaking

SiriusXM Parts Ways With Michelle Beadle, Cody Decker

Beadle, Decker exit three months before Stephen A. Smith takes their slot.
Tony Clark

Everything You Need to Know About the MLBPA-OneTeam FBI Investigation

Money from lucrative group licensing deals is under federal scrutiny.
Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers Finally Agrees to Deal With Steelers

The one-year deal is reportedly set to be signed Friday.

Featured Today

May 27, 2015; Paris, France; Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO) knocks the clay off her shoe during her match against Simona Halep (ROU) on day four of the French Open at Roland Garros

Roland-Garros’s Iconic Red-Clay Surface Is a Precise Alchemy

The exact science behind maintaining the French Open’s red clay.
Alex Jensen introductory press conference on Monday, March 17, 2025.
June 3, 2025

Alex Jensen Started Utah Utes HC Job While Still Coaching the Mavs

How Jensen began building an NCAA program while patrolling the Dallas sideline.
May 31, 2025

PSG and the City of Paris Can Join European Soccer’s Elite

What a maiden Champions League title would mean for the French club.
May 30, 2025

How the Champions League Anthem Took on a Life of Its Own

The composer didn’t know he wrote a timeless hit three decades ago.

As TNT Sports Shifts, WBD Investors Reject $52M Zaslav Pay

Company shareholders reject the executive’s pay in a non-binding vote.
May 30, 2025

French Open Scheduling Sparks Backlash Over Women’s Time Slots

Coco Gauff has also said the French Open schedule could be improved.
hanson_smiling
May 30, 2025

Scott Hanson Agrees to Long-Term Deal for NFL RedZone

His contract expired after the 2024 season.
Sponsored

Game On: Portfolio Players Stories, Brought to You by E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley

In Episode 7 of Portfolio Players, go inside the boardroom with Avenue Capital CEO and former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry on Giannis’s future, women’s sports, and upstart leagues like TGL and Unrivaled. 
May 30, 2025

Panthers-Oilers Rematch Could Be Big in Canada. Will U.S. Ratings Dip?

Likely viewership declines in the U.S. are countered by robust Canadian audiences.
May 28, 2025

NBA East Finals Delivers Strong TV Ratings, but West Is Struggling

The Pacers and Thunder are both up 3–1 in their conference finals series.
Around the Horn
May 23, 2025

Behind the Scenes of Around the Horn’s Final Days

FOS followed Tony Reali at the penultimate taping of the ESPN icon.
Around the Horn - October 26, 2020
May 23, 2025

‘Quirky, Nutty, Bombastic’: 10 ‘Around the Horn’ Faces on Their Top Moments

“A quirky, nutty, bombastic, mostly wrong, sometimes right, crazy sports family.”