On Wednesday, Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports reported that Troy Aikman and Joe Buck had a tense argument in the broadcasting booth on “Monday Night Football” this week.
“As Joe Buck and Troy Aikman prepare to call ESPN’s first Super Bowl, there has been tension between the 25-year booth partners over their respective contract talks, Front Office Sports has learned,” they reported.
“On Monday night, before the Rams took on the Bills at SoFi Stadium, the site of this season’s Super Bowl, Buck ‘broke the ice’ on this unspoken tension, and he and Aikman had an argument, a source said. It ultimately de-escalated, and the two had a broadcast in which viewers never would have been able to decipher that something was amiss.”
Buck recently signed a six-figure contract extension. Aikman, meanwhile, is on an expiring deal, and it sounds like he’s comfortable becoming a free agent this winter.
© Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images
Aikman announced on Thursday, during an appearance on KTCK The Ticket in Dallas, that he will play out the rest of the season with ESPN, call the Super Bowl and then make a decision on his future.
“There’s probably a time and a place for all that. I don’t know if now is the time. I don’t know if it’s hard to figure out kind of what’s happened. I’ll broadcast through this season and I’ll be a free agent at the end of the year and kind of see what happens. But I’m looking forward to whatever the rest of this season does hold and the Super Bowl and all that and where my next landing spot might be,” Aikman said on Thursday morning.
Aikman’s response is quite telling.
The ESPN announcer appears to be on the way out
There would have been a way for Aikman to handle this, and make it seem like he’s still committed to ESPN and that everything will work out in the future.
But that’s not what he did.
Instead, Aikman did not deny there being tension, and that he will likely be leaving the network at the end of the year.
Buck, meanwhile, has made it clear that he wants Aikman to stay put.
“I’m pretty well on record, having begged out of my last years at Fox to follow him to ESPN, where I stand on all that,” Buck said during an appearance on 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia. “I legitimately love the guy like a brother. We’re basically the same age; I’m 57, he’s 59. We’ve both been through divorce. We’re both girl dads. Twenty-five years, you’re sharing a lot of life together. Forget games and in the booth and all that stuff.
“So, I hope so. I mean, both of us were up. It wasn’t like we were doing some national signing day where we walk in arm-in-arm and then sign contracts at the same time. We’ve always kind of kept that stuff separate. I’m obviously hopeful, to say the least, that something gets done. But that’s kind of his world, and ESPN’s world, and I’ve got to kind of mind my own yard in that stuff. I think that’s the best way to be.”
