His aching body made the decision for him when he ended his NFL career in 2001. A quarter of a century later, with one of the top quarterbacks of the 1990s established as half of the pre-eminent broadcasting duo in American sports, his potential exit from the booth is not so clearcut. Aikman clearly feels his voice remains in fine working order, but his bosses at ESPN may not agree.
The color commentator’s Monday Night Football play-by-play partner, Joe Buck, is reported to have agreed a new deal with the network worth $108m over six seasons (his previous deal was for five years at $15m a season), yet Aikman has claimed ESPN does not want to renew his contract. The longest-running television broadcast partnership in NFL history looks set to end once ESPN broadcasts the Super Bowl in February. It would be Buck and Aikman’s seventh Super Bowl together.
After that, Aikman’s existing five-year, $90m deal expires. The prospective rupture is another tremor shaking the NFL’s media landscape only shortly after another ex-Cowboys quarterback turned high-profile TV personality, Tony Romo, was dropped by CBS. The network formally parted ways with the 46-year-old on 2 October, a month after he pleaded no contest to a civil charge of driving while intoxicated in Wisconsin in July.
Adding to the intrigue, Buck and Aikman argued at SoFi Stadium before the Los Angeles Rams hosted the Buffalo Bills on 12 October after Buck broached the matter of the contract-related tension between them, according to Front Office Sports. The murky situation is an unwelcome distraction seemingly of its own making for ESPN, which will produce and show a live Super Bowl for the first time next year at SoFi. It wanted hype; now it has hoopla.
If Aikman’s version of events is accurate, it’s surprising the company would consider terminating the partnership having earlier this year hailed a “surge” in viewership that “coincides with the Buck-Aikman era”. ESPN representatives did not respond to a request for comment, but the network has previously said it “won’t be addressing talent contract specifics publicly before the Super Bowl”. Aikman has been less reticent about giving his side of the story.
He essentially confirmed the Front Office Sports report in an interview with a Dallas radio station, 96.7 The Ticket: “There’s probably a time and a place for all that to be discussed. 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.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
