ESPN allowing Troy Aikman to walk away from Joe Buck’s booth wouldn’t make sense | Bobby Burack

When Joe Buck signed a $100 million extension with ESPN, the natural assumption around the industry was that Troy Aikman would soon follow. Buck and Aikman have worked together for 25 years, first at Fox and at ESPN since 2022. They are often considered the best booth in sports broadcasting.

Yet, within hours of the report on Buck’s deal being released, industry chatter suggested that ESPN and Aikman were not close to a deal.

This week, Aikman addressed the situation — as well as a reported confrontation between him and Buck on Monday Night Football — and said that ESPN had not engaged in any contract negotiations with him. His contract expires in May 2027, after the February Super Bowl he will call.

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Aikman suggested that leaving ESPN now appears to be the most likely outcome.

“It seems like that’s where they’re going,” he said on KTCK The Ticket in Dallas.

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman watch before a game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Wild Card playoff game at Raymond James Stadium on January 16, 2023, in Tampa, Florida. (Getty Images)

At the time of publication, there’s still a lot of mystery as to why ESPN wouldn’t want to keep Aikman. Yes, it is expensive. His current contract pays him around $18 million per year. ESPN, however, pays more to others, including Buck, Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee.

As the lead NFL analyst for Monday Night Football and ESPN’s first Super Bowl in February, there’s an argument that Aikman is the most valuable member of this group.

A popular theory in the industry is that Buck is looking for a new partner. At the very least, Buck signing an extension before Aikman proves he’s willing to work with someone else. Apparently he also wasn’t interested in using his influence to ensure that he and Aikman stayed together.

Sources close to Buck have denied this.

Another theory is that ESPN wants Peyton and Eli Manning in the booth and sees that as an opportunity. However, unless the Mannings have privately agreed to such a move, which seems unlikely, pairing them with Buck seems more like wishful thinking than an actual plan.

ESPN Monday Night Football broadcaster Jason Kelce is on set before a game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Atlanta Falcons at Lincoln Financial Field on September 16, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Eric Hartline/Imagn Images)

Then there are the Kelce brothers.

ESPN has assigned Jason Kelce as color analyst alongside Dave Pasch and Kurt Warner for its international games on NFL Network this season. Kelce was polarizing, yet impressive in his role. ESPN could consider eventually pairing him with his brother Travis, who is expected to retire from the NFL after this season, alongside Buck.

On paper, this sounds intriguing. The problem is, there’s no indication that Travis is interested in becoming a full-time game analyst, much less that the Kelce brothers would be willing to anchor ESPN’s most prominent property in the NFL.

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Greg Olsen is another possibility. He is an impending media free agent and is considered a potential No. 1 game analyst, a role he previously held at Fox before Tom Brady arrived.

Olsen is good. Still, it’s hard to see why ESPN would prefer him over Aikman, who brings more gravitas, popularity and, most importantly, 25 years of chemistry with Buck.

Of course, Olsen is 18 years younger than Aikman and would probably cost less. If ESPN’s goal was to get younger and cheaper, re-signing Buck — who is only two years younger than Aikman — to a nine-figure extension doesn’t exactly fit that philosophy.

From the outside, each alternative looks like a gamble, and probably one that wouldn’t leave ESPN with a better stand than it already has.

This is what makes the situation so confusing.

ESPN spent five years trying to find a suitable Monday Night Football booth. After Mike Tirico left in 2016 and Jon Gruden returned to coaching after the 2017 season, the network went through various combinations involving Steve Levy, Sean McDonough, Joe Tessitore, Booger McFarland, Brian Griese and Louis Riddick.

For some reason, none of them clicked. And most of them are suitable for large broadcasters.

There was even talk in the industry at the time that the instability and poor reception surrounding ESPN’s broadcasts was affecting the quality of games scheduled by the NFL for Monday Night Football.

For what it’s worth, ESPN has benefited from a noticeably stronger slate of games since Buck and Aikman arrived in 2022. Other factors, including ESPN’s improving relationship with the NFL, have undoubtedly played a role as well.

Either way, ESPN has finally found a booth worthy of major NFL games, if not the standard for NFL broadcasting, and now appears ready to split it.

Unless there’s more to the story than anyone outside the company knows, it’s hard to understand the logic.

ESPN commentator Troy Aikman looks on before the game between the Chicago Bears and the Philadelphia Eagles at Soldier Field on September 28, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Getty Images)

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Of course, skeptics have dismissed the entire saga as a negotiating tactic by ESPN. This does not appear to be the case. Usually, such tactics begin with actual negotiations. According to Aikman, there was none.

The fact that ESPN locked up its partner before having a substantive conversation with Aikman suggests one of two things: The company decided it didn’t want to keep him, or it didn’t decide to keep him.

Maybe ESPN is taking Bill Belichick’s old approach with the New England Patriots: Better to move on from a talent a year too early than a year too late. Maybe executives see a decline coming that viewers don’t see.

We are skeptical.