Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are slated to call their first Super Bowl since 2020 later this NFL season for ESPN, unless someone decides to break up the broadcast booth early.
With a 25-year track record, Buck and Aikman have been the surest broadcast booth in the NFL. ESPN brought them from Fox to revitalize Monday Night Football and improve the Worldwide Leader’s relationship with the NFL. And after Buck and Aikman successfully did that, there was seemingly no way ESPN would seek to break up the duo widely considered the best booth. But that was before Aikman’s contract dispute with ESPN turned into a reported argument with Buck, who had already signed his own long-term extension with the company.
What seemed like the surest booth in the NFL has quickly become the broadcast most likely to change. Even Aikman recently addressed his reported argument with Buck by citing the fact that he hasn’t received a contract offer from ESPN. And as the longest-tenured booth in NFL history now faces what seems like its biggest impediment yet, Boomer Esiason casually wondered whether Aikman could leave ESPN before the season is over.
“You know what’s interesting now that we’re about six weeks into the NFL?” Esiason began to speculate on his Friday morning WFAN show with co-host Gregg Giannotti. “I mean, could this end before the season ends?”
Giannotti quickly interjected to note there’s no way Aikman would walk away before calling the Super Bowl, with Esiason then echoing the sentiment by admitting, “I don’t think he would do it, that’s not his nature, I don’t think.”
“But could ESPN feel the pressure, and everything get a little bit tense?” Esiason asked, again wondering if the Monday Night Football booth could completely blow up before the Super Bowl. “I mean, you don’t want guys being tense.”
The idea of Aikman leaving Buck and ESPN before the Super Bowl seems absurd. Then again, the idea of ESPN breaking up Buck and Aikman would have seemed similarly absurd just a few weeks ago; if the negative news surrounding Aikman’s future with Buck and ESPN continues at its current rate, who knows how ugly this might get. Logic, however, would say the reported argument with Buck may have been the low point in their relationship, and now they’ll move forward.
Aikman and Buck were able to overcome whatever argument they had prior to their previous Monday Night Football broadcast. Aikman will similarly overcome whatever feelings he has about Buck and ESPN to call the Super Bowl. But his contract status will undoubtedly cast a dark cloud over ESPN’s first-ever Super Bowl broadcast later this season. And the only way to completely eliminate that cloud will be by signing Aikman to a contract extension or breaking up with him before the Super Bowl.
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