Pat McAfee Addresses 'Monday Night Football' Rumors in Video Amid Troy Aikman's ESPN Contract Talks

Amid growing speculation about Troy Aikman's future as the color commentator for ESPN's Monday Night Football coverage, Pat McAfee is shutting down rumors that he is being eyed as a potential replacement.

On Thursday's episode of The Pat McAfee Show , McAfee said there has "never been a conversation" about him joining the Monday Night Football booth with Joe Buck.

Aikman is in the final season of his original contract with ESPN that was signed in 2022. The move maintained his partnership with Buck that began in 2002 when they both worked for Fox Sports.

Buck, who was also in the final year of his original ESPN deal, signed a six-year extension with the network last month that will pay him around $108 million.

It doesn't appear as if ESPN and Aikman will strike a deal anytime soon. The Dallas Cowboys legend told 96.7 The Ticket in Dallas (via Joseph Hoyt of the Dallas Morning News ) he will be a free agent at the end of the season:

"There's probably a time and a place for all that. I don't know if now is the time. I don't know if it's hard to figure out kind of what happened. I'll broadcast through this season and I'll be a free agent at the end of the year and kind of see what happens. I'm looking forward to whatever the rest of this season does hold and the Super Bowl and all that and where my next landing spot may be."

Aikman's comments came on the heels of a report from Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports about "unspoken tension" between Aikman and Buck, leading to "an argument" between the two prior to the the Buffalo Bills-Los Angeles Rams game on Monday night.

The speculation about McAfee began on Monday when Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports wrote a column suggesting that ESPN's planned Super Bowl 61 alt-cast led by McAfee could be a tryout for him to replace Aikman in the booth next season.

McAfee has an enormous presence on ESPN airwaves already between his podcast, analyst role on College Gameday , alt-casts during the College Football Playoff national championship and forthcoming Super Bowl alt-cast.

ESPN also announced McAfee will lead Monday Night Football alt-casts this season in games with the Manning-cast is not airing. The first game with McAfee's crew will be this coming week for the Washington Commanders-San Francisco 49ers matchup.