When it comes to the kind of money they throw around in the Monday Night Football broadcast booth, you can throw friendships out the window.
According to a report from Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel on Wednesday, the tension over their respective contracts — or lack thereof — boiled over between MNF play-by-play man Joe Buck and ex-Dallas Cowboys quarterback and MNF color commentator Troy Aikman before Monday’s game between the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams.
Buck recently agreed to a new 6-year, $108 million contract to remain with MNF while Aikman, a 3-time Super Bowl champion and Pro Football Hall of Famer, remains without a deal.
Longtime Partnership Apparently in Peril
Aikman and Buck have become one of the NFL’s iconic broadcast duos over the last 25 years together — essentially since the end of Aikman’s playing career.
The two began broadcasting together on Fox Sports and spent 20 years as the network’s top NFL broadcast team before making the leap to MNF in 2022.
Aikman is currently in the final season of a reported 5-year, $90 million contract with Disney/ESPN/ABC.
“Since Buck reached a new six-year deal with ESPN that will keep him as the voice of the Monday Night Football booth through the network’s next Super Bowl, there has been unspoken tension between the partners that one has a new contract while the other, Aikman, has not received a formal offer,” Glasspiegel wrote. “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.”
Both Buck, Aikman Venture Out Beyond MNF Booth
For Buck, the amount of his contract and the fact that Disney moved quickly to bring him back might reflect that he has a role with the company that expands beyond MNF — he has also hosted Good Morning America, ESPN Jeopardy and will be a guest host on Dancing With the Stars.
Aikman has also ventured out in a different way — back to the sport that made him famous. In January, he was hired as a consultant for the Miami Dolphins to help lead their search for a new head coach and general manager.
Ex-Cowboys QB Troy Aikman in Fiery Clash Before MNF Broadcast: Report