Troy Aikman leaves Fox to join ESPN’s football team on Monday night, Andrew Marshand of New York Post reported Wednesday night.
The move was a small surprise. Aikman’s contract is over, but he believed he was back with Fox, join the Amazon Thursday Night package, or do both. Aikman doubled from Thursday to Sunday as Fox purchased the package on Thursday night in the 2018 NFL.
Instead, Aikman is on the verge of moving to Monday night. The quarterback of the Professional Football Hall of Fame retired in 2000, the following year he joined Fox and in 2002 received the No. 1 Fox position. He and Chris Collinsworth worked with Joe Buck from 2002 to 2004; Collinsworth later joined NBC, and since then Buck and Aikman have been a crew of 2, calling on 17 NFC championships as well as five Super Cups in pairs.
The Aikman ESPN is finally gaining talent on the A + list, behind which the self-proclaimed world leader has spent years. The network has made countless launches in Peyton Manning, which has worked, in a sense. ESPN even tried to attract NBC trade Al Michaels back them, to no avail.
The The message reports that ESPN may try to acquire Buck in Fox, which would be a seismic shift in the broadcasting world.
Buck joined Fox in 1994, at the age of 25, when the upstart network was looking buy your way to American living rooms through NFL rights. For the past 30 years, Buck has become the voice of the network in each of those times. He has been a leading voice in the Major League Baseball since 1996 and a leading NFL broadcaster since 2002. The 8-time Amy winner has challenged 24 World Series and six Super Cups. Fox will retain the World Series until at least 2028 and is eligible for the Super Cup next season and again in the 2024 campaign.
For all these reasons, it would be strange if Buck left Fox, but in any case he will have to work with a new network or a new partner for the first time in more than 20 years.
The The message reports that Aikman will receive Tony Roma-level money. Aikman’s less successful successor in the Dallas Cowboys defense attorney has signed (still) a ridiculous 10-year $ 180 million contract at the end of February 2020a few weeks before the pandemic the American economy came to a halt.
In the future, the NFL will have five broadcast partners: CBS and Fox on Sunday afternoon; NBC on Sunday nights, ESPN on Monday nights and now Amazon on Thursdays. Four new speakers may soon appear in the four.
Industry insiders expect Al Michaels to call in the Amazon game. His contract with NBC has expired and he announced his departure during the Super Bowl last week when Mike Tirico got up to call Sunday night.
It takes care of two, and Aikman news could affect two more. Steve Levy, Brian Griez and Louis Rydick have called ESPN games Monday night for the past two seasons, but the network did not seem enthusiastic about his crew № 1 from the beginning.
For a while, the network seemed to be preparing Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstraight to move from Saturday night to Monday night, but the acquisition of Aikman could change those plans. Levy, Buck or someone else can work with Aikman in September.
Either way, ESPN is increasing its investment in the NFL, starting immediately. ESPN and ABC will host 25 games in 2022, up from 18 this season, and are now back in Super Cup rotation for the first time in two decades; ABC will host the Big Game in 2027, for the first time since the Steelers beat the Seahawks in Detroit to close the 2005 season.
With how ridiculous the money in the cabin has become, Aikman’s shock waves leaving Fox on ESPN could hit the field. Now that Aikman has stepped down from the board, Amazon needs a vote № 1 to pair with Michaels. Sean Peyton, recently retired, may be an option. Or Jeff Bezos ’hippopotamus could become even more relevant. The The message Amazon reports can present Sean McVeigh with a proposal that would lead him from the Los Angeles Rams title defense coach to an analysis of that.