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By Michael Gallagher
Sports Content Coordinator
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Joe Buck and Troy Aikman have been the NFL’s longest-running broadcast pairing for 25 seasons, but their partnership has never been shakier than it is right now.
The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported in September that ESPN signed Buck to a six-year, $108 million extension without telling Aikman, who is in the final year of his five-year, $90 million deal with the network.
Things reached a boiling point before the Oct. 12 Bills-Rams game on “Monday Night Football.” According to Marchand, Buck confronted Aikman in the booth by asking, “You are not going to f---ing talk to me?” before adding, “I’m not the reason you don’t have a contract.”
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Aikman reportedly fired back: “I just never thought you’d do it to me.”
However, at least one of their old Fox colleagues isn’t convinced money is the real problem.
“Fox NFL Sunday” analyst Terry Bradshaw, a four-time Super Bowl champion and longtime friend of both broadcasters, weighed in on the feud this week during an appearance on “The Brian Kilmeade Show.”
“I have talked to Buck via text and told him I don’t assume everything I’m reading is correct, and I’ve known Troy Aikman for a while — they’re both real good friends of mine,” Bradshaw said. “I don’t understand. Troy has the big contract now, and Joe Buck got a big contract. I don’t want to believe that it’s the money that Buck got that’s got Troy upset, because Troy is making big money.
“I have heard that they were going to go into ESPN together and get a new deal together. Joe evidently got his before Troy, and that seems to be the rift. It’s about money — and I find that hard to believe because Troy Aikman is not like that; he’s not like that. My understanding right now is things are okay.”
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Neither Buck nor Aikman has publicly addressed the joint negotiation Bradshaw described.
Aikman’s future remains up in the air. He said last month on Dallas radio station 96.7 The Ticket that he’ll “broadcast through this season” and become a free agent at the end of the year.
That means ESPN’s first Super Bowl broadcast — Super Bowl LXI on Feb. 14 — could be the final call for Buck and Aikman together.
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