The biggest story in sports broadcasting currently is the fallout inside the ESPN NFL broadcast booth between former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman and legendary sportscaster Joe Buck. On her show, former ESPN anchor Linda Cohn called out the network for ruining the contract talks and putting Aikman and Buck’s long-term relationship on the line.
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After Joe Buck received a huge 6-year contract extension worth $108 million, paying him $18 million per year, Aikman was left with no offer going into the last year of his contract. As they’re both represented by the Creative Artists Agency, Aikman felt he was intentionally kept in the dark. While Aikman reportedly felt betrayed by Buck’s secret negotiations, Linda Cohn called out ESPN’s President of Content Burke Magnus on air, explaining how the network is actually responsible for ruining the relationship.
“I still believe ESPN should have handled the contract situation better, but this latest reporting also makes me wonder whether a contract alone could fix what’s happened. I don’t think it can at this point. If ESPN turned around tomorrow and said, ‘You know what, Troy Aikman, you deserve as much money as Joe is making,’ I think that it’s fractured. The relationship is over, fractured. The people responsible, Burke Magnus, people like that at ESPN, could have been prevented.
“ESPN now has a decision to make about what it wants from this booth beyond simply getting through this season. Because I’m telling you, these two have the experience to deliver a professional broadcast under difficult circumstances. I can’t believe they have to, but after all these years together, it is really sad to think that getting through it, just getting through the broadcast, might be what this partnership has become. A shame,” Linda Cohn said on Sunday on The Linda Cohn Show.
Aikman was reportedly asking for around $30 million per year, trying to get closer to Tom Brady’s benchmark contract on Fox. But when ESPN refused to match this, his representatives asked for an 18% increase to match Buck’s raise. However, Magnus reportedly halted talks.
Cohn, who anchored ESPN’s SportsCenter for 34 years, and while she loved working with nearly all her colleagues, she admitted that she didn’t get on with a couple of her co-anchors. She said that while getting through an hour in the studio was tough, it’s nothing compared to having to endure a 3-hour live football game together.
To make matters worse, ESPN and ABC are due to show Super Bowl LXI in February 2027, meaning it will be ESPN’s debut broadcast of the Super Bowl. Instead of celebrating such an iconic moment in sports history, they’ve forced their best on-air duo to grit their teeth and fake smiles to get through another 3 hours every week.
The frustration boiled over in SoFi Stadium ahead of the Week 5 clash between the Bills and Rams. After an hour-long meeting between Aikman and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro, Buck broke his silence with an expletive.
“You are not going to f—ing talk to me?” Buck asked.
Aikman responded with “I just never thought you’d do it to me.”
This quickly turned into a bigger issue. Aikman accused Buck of betraying him, which led to recent changes in Monday Night Football directors and producers. However, Buck denied this strongly, saying that the production team left because Aikman was constantly shouting at them in the truck.
Clearly, ESPN executives have taken Buck’s side in this potential divorce, as he’s much easier to manage. Contract talks with Aikman are currently at a standstill. In March, Aikman said that he has a 50/50 chance of returning to television next fall as he’ll be a free agent at the end of the year.
With Aikman likely leaving, Fox analyst Greg Olsen is the frontrunner to replace him. Olsen’s contract with Fox ends this season, and with Tom Brady locked in Fox’s top booth, Olsen wants to be in the main chair. Ironically, Buck left Fox in 2022 partly to not break Olsen in.
It’ll be interesting to see if ESPN made the right decision to take Joe’s side and if Greg Olsen can come in place of Troy Aikman and keep Monday Night Football at the top.