Troy Aikman was reportedly stewing for weeks before a heated confrontation took place between the ex-Cowboys quarterback and Joe Back ahead of the Bills-Rams “Monday Night Football” broadcast on Oct. 12.
A report from Puck on Wednesday provided new details into the ongoing hostilities between ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” broadcast team that have made headlines for weeks, following news of Buck’s six-year, $108 million contract extension first reported in September.
Ahead of the game at SoFi Stadium, Buck “finally snapped” after weeks of “Troy becoming increasingly cold, difficult, short, making comments,” a source told Puck.
“He basically said, ‘Dude, are we really going to do this?’ And Troy’s position was: ‘You f–ked me over!’” the source told the outlet about the confrontation.
Ahead of this past Monday’s 49ers-Commanders game on ESPN, Buck spoke with the production, which included Aikman, to apologize for his part in what happened the week before and preached a message of everyone moving forward.
“We’re all adults, we’ve all got jobs to do, let’s move forward, let’s have a great year,” a source explained to Puck as Buck’s message.
While Buck’s future at the Worldwide Leader is secured, Aikman’s is less than certain.
He expressed surprise that his own contract had not been taken care of before the start of the season in an interview on the “Sports Media with Richard Deitsch” podcast in September.
The report on Wednesday indicated that Aikman did not learn of Buck’s contract extension from his longtime broadcast partner — a partnership that began in 2002 when the pair were at Fox and continued after they both made the jump to ESPN’s in 2022 — nor from network execs.
Aikman felt double-crossed, according to the report, and one source told the outlet that he “saw it as the ultimate act of betrayal.”
“They cut this deal in May and put it in a drawer. ESPN didn’t tell him, Joe didn’t tell him. Even CAA didn’t tell him,” another source told Puck.
Aikman has seemingly confirmed he would not return to ESPN after his contract expires following this season, telling Jimmy Traina last week that “it just seems to be where they’re going.”
