Puck’s Dylan Byers reports that tension between ESPN’s Monday Night Football partners Joe Buck and Troy Aikman persists off the air, according to Sam Neumann at Awful Announcing. Byers reported that dialogue with ESPN leadership had only slightly eased the strain. “It’s not a tension-free zone,” a source told Byers, as quoted by Neumann. The New York Post also relayed Byers’s report.
The account contrasts with the pair’s appearance during the Eagles-Cowboys broadcast. Awful Announcing, citing The Philadelphia Inquirer, describes Buck joking with Aikman, praising highlights of Aikman’s Super Bowl performance against the Bills and joining him for a cordial postgame segment. In an Oct. 30 post, The Athletic described their quarter-century broadcast partnership as “fracturing.”
Awful Announcing attributes the initial report of a rift to Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel and further reporting on a pregame confrontation to Byers. The outlet reports that Buck signed a six-year ESPN extension worth roughly $108 million, while Aikman is in the final season of a five-year, $90 million deal. It says The Athletic disclosed Buck’s extension in September and Byers reported that the deal had been finalized in May.
Awful Announcing also reports that Aikman told Jimmy Traina ESPN had not engaged him in contract talks and that his deal expires in March. “It just seems to be where they’re going,” Aikman told Traina, as quoted by Awful Announcing. Byers’s assessment, as relayed by the outlet, is that Aikman appears almost certain to leave next season. That is a forecast, not a decision Aikman has announced.
