Joe Buck and Troy Aikman have shared an NFL broadcast booth for 25 seasons, but a heated pregame argument at SoFi Stadium has exposed a rift over Buck’s new ESPN contract.
Aikman felt blindsided by a deal he never knew existed, according to multiple reports. The two now face the remainder of the NFL season plus the Super Bowl in the same booth.
The new details come from more than a dozen sources, according to Puck reporter Dylan Byers. The argument erupted before the Oct. 12 game in which the Buffalo Bills beat the Los Angeles Rams 37-34 in overtime. Aikman had spent weeks growing “increasingly cold, difficult, short,” one source told Byers, as quoted by Pro Football Talk‘s Mike Florio.
Buck “finally snapped,” according to the new report.
“He basically said, ‘Dude, are we really going to do this?’ And Troy’s position was: You f***** me over!” the source told Byers.
Troy Aikman’s Contract Dispute With Joe Buck
So what set Aikman off? A six-year extension that keeps Buck as the voice of Monday Night Football through ESPN’s next Super Bowl, a deal that became public Sept. 16, according to The Athletic. Buck negotiated it in May, and neither he, ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro nor their shared agency, CAA, told Aikman, according to the Byers report.
Aikman “saw it as the ultimate act of betrayal,” a source told Byers.
“They cut this deal in May and put it in a drawer,” the source added. “ESPN didn’t tell him, Joe didn’t tell him.”
Aikman is in the final year of a five-year contract worth about $90 million (roughly $18 million annually) and has no formal offer from ESPN or parent company Disney. One of his agents set his value near $30 million a year and talks stalled, according to Sports Media Watch.
The friction surfaced Oct. 14. Buck “broke the ice” before kickoff, and the argument that followed de-escalated, according to Front Office Sports.
Aikman did not deny the tension on Dallas radio station 96.7 The Ticket.
“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,” Aikman said, as quoted by Sports Media Watch.
Buck apologized to Aikman and the production crew before the following Monday’s Commanders–49ers game.
“We’re all adults, we’ve all got jobs to do, let’s move forward, let’s have a great year,” Buck said, per Byers’ reporting.
Aikman reportedly said nothing.
Troy Aikman, Joe Buck Booth History
Buck and Aikman began working together at Fox in 2002 in a three-man booth with Cris Collinsworth, then became a duo in 2005, according to ESPN’s biography of Buck. They have called six Super Bowls together.
In 2022 they moved to ESPN. Fox released Buck from the last year of his contract, according to a Sports Illustrated profile.
Aikman was born in West Covina, California, and raised in Cerritos. He played at Oklahoma, then transferred to UCLA, where he won the Davey O’Brien Award and finished third in Heisman Trophy voting, according to the College Football Hall of Fame.
The Dallas Cowboys selected him first overall in 1989. Aikman spent all 12 of his NFL seasons in Dallas, throwing for 32,942 yards and 165 touchdowns. He made six Pro Bowls and won three Super Bowls. He was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006, according to ESPN.
His ESPN contract expires after this season, which ends with the network’s first Super Bowl, Florio noted, on Feb. 14 at SoFi Stadium, the same building where the argument began.
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