adds some color<\/a> to the prior report of tension between the Monday Night Football broadcaster team.<\/p>\n\u201cThere had been weeks of Troy becoming increasingly cold, difficult, short, making comments,\u201d a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Byers. \u201cJoe finally snapped,\u201d the source told Byers, in reference to the Week 5 incident at the Bills-Rams game. \u201cHe basically said, \u2018Dude, are we really going to do this?\u2019 And Troy\u2019s position was: You fucked me over!\u201d <\/p>\n
Said another unnamed source to Byers, \u201cThey exchanged some very direct and honest feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Byers, who says he spoke to more than a dozen sources, writes that Aikman \u201cfelt like a lot of people had fucked him over.\u201d<\/p>\n
It came down to Buck cutting a deal on his extension, with the understanding that he may have a new partner in 2027. But Aikman also had been trying to do his own deal; per Byers, one of Aikman\u2019s agents pegged his value at $30 million per year \u2014 a sizable jump over his current rate of $18 million.<\/p>\n
Aikman \u201csaw it as the ultimate act of betrayal,\u201d an unnamed source told Byers. \u201cThey cut this deal in May and put it in a drawer. ESPN didn\u2019t tell him, Joe didn\u2019t tell him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, it\u2019s everyone for themselves. Aikman asked for too much. Buck made a more realistic demand. If it had been the other way around, Aikman would have his deal and Buck would be waiting for an offer that, at this point, may never come.<\/p>\n
Byers reports that, on the most recent Monday night in Santa Clara, Buck apologized to Aikman and the entire production team for losing his cool. Buck\u2019s message was, per Byers, \u201cWe\u2019re all adults, we\u2019ve all got jobs to do, let\u2019s move forward, let\u2019s have a great year.\u201d Aikman reportedly added nothing after Buck said what he had to say.<\/p>\n
The whole thing is odd, to say the least, if not unprecedented. At this point, it seems like Aikman will be leaving, likely for CBS or Prime Video. And Buck, armed with his new contract, will be sticking around.<\/p>\n
Through it all, they\u2019ll be working together for the rest of a season that culminates in ESPN\u2019s first Super Bowl. <\/p>\n
At a time when ESPN is trying its best to relentlessly hype the February 14 event, the Aikman-Buck situation becomes a potential distraction. Or maybe it adds a little extra sizzle, given the possibility that their tenuous relationship could lead to an on-air incident at some point between now and the final game of the 2026 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 25-year partnership between Joe Buck and Troy Aikman is moving toward a conclusion, and more details have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[99],"class_list":["post-890364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}