Troy Aikman doubles down on potential ESPN exit: ‘It just seems to be where they’re going’

Troy Aikman is sending a message to ESPN — two in one day, actually.

A few weeks ago, Joe Buck appeared with Bob Ley at the Seton Hall Center for Sports Media and spoke about his relationship with Aikman, his broadcast partner since 2002, saying it's like a marriage.

Aikman and Buck may have a professional divorce in their future, too.

On Wednesday, Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports reported "tension" between Buck and Aikman stemming from "their respective contract talks," which came to a head in the form of "an argument" before calling the Buffalo Bills' win over the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football this week.

Buck signed a lucrative contract extension with ESPN last month, The Athletic reported , while ESPN remains noncommittal to Aikman beyond this season. Aikman and Buck have manned ESPN's Monday Night Football booth since 2022 .

Come Thursday, Aikman appeared on KTCK The Ticket in Dallas and addressed the swelling rumors. Aikman chuckled, and a loaded pause followed before he finally responded.

"There's probably a time and a place for all that to be discussed," Aikman said. "I don't know if now is the time. I don't know if it's hard to figure out kind of what's 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."

"But I'm looking forward to whatever the rest of this year does hold and the Super Bowl and all that and where my next landing spot might be," Aikman added.

Later Thursday, Jimmy Traina followed up with Aikman on where he stands with ESPN, and Aikman doubled down on his earlier comments.

"It just seems to be where they're going — that they're gonna go in a different direction because there's been no talks, no contract negotiations," Aikman told Traina. "We're in a Super Bowl year. The Super Bowl is Feb. 14. My contract ends in March. It just doesn't seem logical that if they were gonna keep me, something wouldn't be in place before that."

When asked how his murky future may impact the remainder of the NFL season, Aikman said, "The rest of the season will be fine. Excited about it. Looking forward to it. It's awesome that we got the Super Bowl. Not a problem at all."

Aikman may be trying to create leverage with ESPN, as Awful Announcing's Drew Lerner notes here , but given the tone and persistence of his comments, the Aikman-Buck booth is increasingly likely to be in its final months.