Buck No! Troy Aikman Could Be Leaving Long-Time Partner Joe Buck
NFL free agency isn't limited to just players. Broadcasters can also hit the open market. And this winter's big catch is current Fox Sports broadcaster, Troy Aikman, who could find himself swimming in a different pond next fall.
That is, unless long-time partner Joe Buck can reel him back into Fox.
"He knows how I feel. I don’t want him going anywhere. And that’s understood," Buck told Awful Announcing. "But at the end of the day, he’s gonna do what he wants to do.”
A couple years after his playing career ended in 2000, Aikman joined Fox, and he and Buck have been the network's lead announcing crew ever since. But now, he's a media free agent, and he faces the very real possibility that Sunday's 49ers - Rams NFC Championship call could be his last with broadcast teammate Joe Buck.
"I really don’t know what it’s gonna look like when it’s all said and done and it does get settled. As to whether I’ll be working for Fox and Amazon, whether I’ll just be working for Fox or whether I’ll just be working for Amazon," Aikman told the Fort-Worth Star Telegram earlier this week. "I really don’t know what might happen.”
Should Aikman leave for Amazon Prime -- which will broadcast 15 Thursday night games beginning next season -- or another network, Buck will not only lose a decades-long broadcast partner, he'll also lose a good friend.
"He’s legitimately one of my best friends and I think he would say the same about me,” Buck admitted to Awful Announcing. "So I try not to think about it. And we talk about it, we talk about what’s out there. We talk about what he’s deciding between and everything else, but I only ask questions and talk about it to a point. Because that’s his life, that’s his career."
Perhaps the final Buck - Aikman game kicks off Sunday at 6:30 pm EST on Fox.
Should Troy opt to swim away, Buck shouldn’t fret. There are plenty of other ex-QBs (Hi Peyton, Hi Drew!) in the sea.
Follow along on Twitter: @OhioAF