NFL TV Drama - We Have A Report Of Joe Buck And Troy Aikman Getting Into An Argument Before The Big Monday Night Game Between The Bills And The Rams

Sports fans LOVE shit like this. 

And if they claim they don't, they're lying. 

Sports media drama is a close second to in-game action in terms of fan interest. I find that especially true with local sports radio and the NFL (and Barstool gossip...duh). 

This one is juicy. 

Friend of Pardon My Take, Joe Buck, just got a MONSTER new deal with ESPN. We're talking 6 years, $108 million. You know, who doesn't have a contract extension yet? His TV partner, Troy Aikman. 

I can see how that may put stress on one of the NFL's top booths. Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports has the details of how that stress finally boiled over Monday Night before Bills/Rams in LA.  

As Joe Buck and Troy Aikman prepare to call ESPN’s first Super Bowl, there has been tension between the 25-year booth partners over their respective contract talks, Front Office Sports has learned.

After The Athletic reported last month that Buck has reached a new six-year deal with ESPN that will keep him as the voice of the Monday Night Football booth through the network’s next Super Bowl, there has been unspoken tension between the partners that one has a new contract while the other, Aikman, has not received a formal offer.

On Monday night, before the Rams took on the Bills at SoFi Stadium, the site of this season’s Super Bowl, Buck “broke the ice” on this unspoken tension, and he and Aikman had an argument, a source said. It ultimately de-escalated, and the two had a broadcast in which viewers never would have been able to decipher that something was amiss.

I stayed up well past my bedtime to watch this game, and I couldn't tell there was any pregame issue.

When I ranked the NFL Playoff booths in January, I had Buck & Aikman #2, behind Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth. I think ESPN's #1 crew has good chemistry, can bust balls, and will call out coaches and refs for shitty calls. As a fan at home, that's what I'm looking for. 

ESPN has the Super Bowl this year. They say they’re focused on this season and The Big Game and won't address talent specifics before then. With Aikman's deal up after that game, it leaves him in big-time limbo while Buck is locked in through 2031. Tough scene. 

Are they dragging their feet because they want someone else? 

Do they think next year, far removed from his OWI plea last month, that Tony Romo would be a better option? 

CBS Photo Archive. Getty Images.

That would be a bad move. Romo's sound effects lost their luster after Year 1, and Aikman is better in the booth now. 

Greg Olsen got demoted to the Fox #2 team when Tom Brady came aboard. I like Olsen and his ability to mix 'I played the game' with 'Football Analytics are not just for nerds', and you can make the case he deserves to be in a top booth. But what if he and Buck don't work well together? I like Olsen. Do they like him THAT much to risk breaking up a booth that works right now? 

Kristina Bumphrey. Getty Images.

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Good God, is that the Mannings Music? 

These two are over on ESPN 2, doing their ManningCast thing. Does ESPN want to put them in the big boy booth with Buck? I can see some executives drooling over that idea, and maybe it will work. Do those guys want to travel half the year instead of staying home in their cool studio? Do they want to be on the call for their nephew Arch when he gets to the NFL? 

Or is ESPN getting ready to move Pat McAfee into their biggest asset? They just announced he'll do more MNF Altcasts and an altcast for the Super Bowl. 

More importantly, will this tension linger with Buck and Aikman this season? Like, does Aikman get a sense Buck wants him out? Or that he's okay with a change? Do we get an on-air battle at some point? Probably not; they seem pretty professional. But it's a bad look for ESPN, letting Aikman dangle out there for the rest of the season as an impending free agent. I can see CBS grabbing him right away to pair with Jim Nantz if he doesn't return to ESPN. 

Lots of moving parts and lots of drama. I'm here for all of it. 

P.S. 

Oh, and the current NFL Booth Top 3 according to me: 

1. Tirico/Collinsworth

2. Buck/Aikman

3. Kevin Burkhardt/Tom Brady (Brady has gotten a lot better)