There’s a reason why I think ESPN’s Troy Aikman is the best NFL game analyst in the business. The Cowboys legend knows he’s supposed to be an advocate for millions of TV viewers, not a shill for the league. He also does not provide air cover for NFL referees who are making some telecasts unwatchable with a flurry of questionable flags.
Take Aikman and Joe Buck’s performance during the Broncos-Bengals Monday Night Football game. By the third quarter of a 28–3 blowout, Aikman had had enough of the frequent penalties. A Broncos offensive lineman was penalized for a blindside block. Russell Yurk, the longtime NFL officiating executive turned on-air rules analyst, piped up that it was the right call. But Aikman said that even if some are technically correct, they don’t have to be called.
“I’m not gonna keep my mouth shut,” Aikman said. “That’s a good call. Just not a necessary call. No opportunity to try and make a play. … Nothing brings a broadcast to a screeching halt more than these yellow flags.”
That moment was quickly followed by a call for ineligible man downfield. At that point, it was the 22nd penalty called in the game, noted Buck. Once again, Aikman sounded off: “The product’s just not very good. I’m gonna be honest. It’s just not very good. I mean, this is ridiculous.”
I’m not the only one saluting a fed-up Aikman for telling it like it is. As Sports Illustrated noted: “Aikman and Buck were right—that many flags makes a NFL game very hard to watch.” Added Awful Announcing: “Regardless of who’s to blame, Aikman is right. Games with an abundance of penalties aren’t fun to watch. When they occur, the product is bad.”
Back in 2022, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro pried Aikman and Buck away from rival Fox Sports via long-term deals worth a combined $165 million. With six Super Bowls under their belt, Aikman, Buck, and sideline reporter Lisa Salters vaulted ESPN NFL’s broadcast booth from what I think was the worst all the way to first among the league’s media partners. Contrast Aikman’s candor with Tom Brady, his robotic successor at Fox, who still hems and haws when it comes to bad officiating.
The aggressive Pitaro was willing to pay what it took to land Aikman and Buck with an eye toward them calling the network’s first Super Bowl in 2027 and possibly another in 2030. As Pitaro said at our live Tuned In event in New York this month: “We are all hands on deck here as we gear up for February 2027.”
During his playing days, Aikman was known as a bad interview, recalls Dale Hansen, the Dallas sportscasting legend. The three-time Super Bowl winner played things close to the vest and didn’t tolerate stupid questions. When a newly retired Aikman asked Hansen for broadcast advice, Hansen told him he had to be his own sharp, opinionated, snarky self on the air, not the boring, buttoned-down QB he played in public for years.
“I basically told him: Show the country who the real Troy Aikman is and you’ll be a star,” Hansen tells FOS. “I think he’s done exactly that.”
