Joe Buck and Troy Aikman arrived at ESPN together. For 25 seasons, they have called NFL games together, and they currently make exactly the same amount of money: $18 million per year. But suddenly, their futures look very different.
Last week, Buck reportedly agreed to a new six-year contract extension with ESPN worth approximately $108 million, locking him up well into the next decade. Aikman, meanwhile, is entering the final season of the five-year, $90 million contract he signed with ESPN in 2022. Despite the fact that his longtime broadcast partner just received a nine-figure extension, Aikman says he hasn’t even started negotiating his own new deal.
“I thought something would be done prior to the start of this season,” Aikman said during an appearance on the “Sports Media with Richard Deitsch” podcast. “I’ve never gone into a last year of a contract ever since I signed with the Dallas Cowboys. So I thought that it would be done. It’s not.“
As for when a new deal might happen, Aikman sounded genuinely uncertain. “When it might get done, if it gets done, is anybody’s guess, and it’s just not something that I’m really putting a lot of energy into.” For a broadcaster who has spent nearly a quarter-century as part of one of the most recognizable announcing teams in football, that’s a surprisingly unsettled position.
(Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
ESPN Paid Troy Aikman $90 Million To Leave Fox
Aikman’s current situation is especially interesting considering how aggressively ESPN pursued him just four years ago. In early 2022, Troy Aikman was still Fox’s lead NFL analyst, a position he had held for roughly two decades, when ESPN convinced him to leave with a five-year contract worth a reported $90 million.
The deal works out to $18 million per year and helped reset an already booming market for high-profile sports broadcasters. For comparison, CBS had previously signed Tony Romo to a 10-year, $180 million contract, also worth approximately $18 million annually.
Once Aikman agreed to join ESPN, the network pursued his longtime Fox partner Joe Buck. Buck ultimately signed his own five-year, $75 million contract, worth $15 million per year. In other words, ESPN committed approximately $165 million to importing Fox’s top NFL booth essentially intact.
The pairing worked exactly as ESPN hoped. Buck and Aikman immediately became the voices of “Monday Night Football,” giving the network a consistent, high-profile booth after years of turnover in its premier NFL broadcast.
Aikman Has Already Made More From ESPN Than He Made Playing Football
Aikman’s $90 million ESPN contract becomes even more remarkable when compared with what he earned during the career that made him famous in the first place. During 12 seasons as quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, Aikman earned approximately $55.5 million in NFL salary and bonuses.
That means his current five-year ESPN contract alone is worth roughly $34.5 million more than all the salary and bonuses he earned during his entire playing career. Obviously, NFL salaries were dramatically lower during Aikman’s era. He entered the league as the #1 overall pick in 1989 and retired after the 2000 season, long before exploding television revenues pushed elite quarterback contracts into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Still, it is a remarkable second act. Aikman won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys, made six Pro Bowls, was named MVP of Super Bowl XXVII, and eventually entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Yet five years talking about football for ESPN will pay him substantially more than 12 years actually playing it.
Joe Buck Just Got His $108 Million Extension
The contrast became much more noticeable last week. As we detailed a few days ago, Buck reportedly agreed to a six-year extension worth approximately $108 million.
The new agreement gives Buck a raise from $15 million to approximately $18 million per year, conveniently putting him at the same annual salary Aikman currently earns. Buck’s future is therefore settled, while Aikman’s remains completely unresolved.
According to Aikman, he hasn’t had conversations with ESPN executives about what happens next. That’s notable because the two broadcasters have essentially operated as a package for most of their careers, and ESPN specifically reunited them when it hired both away from Fox.
25 Seasons Together
Buck and Aikman first began calling games together for Fox in 2002. They eventually became the network’s lead NFL broadcast team, calling six Super Bowls together before leaving for ESPN. The 2026 season marks their 25th season as broadcast partners, reportedly making them the longest-running NFL commentary pairing in history.
Aikman made clear that continuing to work with Buck matters to him. “Would I like to continue working with Joe Buck moving down the road? 100 percent,” he told Deitsch. But he also acknowledged that the decision may not be entirely his, adding, “How much of that is my decision, I guess is yet to be determined.”
That is an unusual position considering where the two broadcasters were just a few years ago. ESPN didn’t merely hire Aikman and then happen to pair him with Buck. The network specifically assembled one of the most established broadcast teams in sports, and now it has guaranteed one half of that partnership more than $100 million while the other half approaches the end of his contract.
A $108 Million Question
The obvious question is what Aikman would command if ESPN decides to keep the partnership intact. His existing deal already pays him $18 million annually, while Buck’s new deal will reportedly pay him approximately the same amount for another six years.
If ESPN simply gave Aikman the same six-year, $108 million structure it just gave Buck, his total haul from the network would become staggering. His first ESPN contract is worth $90 million. A hypothetical second contract on Buck’s terms would be worth another $108 million, bringing the combined total to $198 million.
There is no indication that ESPN has offered Aikman $108 million, or anything at all. Aikman’s entire point is that those conversations apparently haven’t happened. But Buck’s agreement creates an obvious benchmark, especially considering the two men currently earn the same annual salary and have spent a quarter-century working together.
It would also be somewhat surprising if ESPN committed six more years and $108 million to Buck while allowing the analyst sitting next to him to simply walk away. Whether ESPN sees Aikman as worth another nine-figure contract, however, remains unanswered.
First, There’s A Super Bowl
There is at least one enormous assignment remaining on Aikman’s current contract. ESPN and ABC will broadcast the Super Bowl for the first time in February 2027, with Buck and Aikman expected to call the game.
That means the network’s first Super Bowl booth will feature one announcer who has just signed a six-year, $108 million extension and another whose contract will essentially expire after the season. ESPN appears content to leave the issue unresolved for now, saying publicly that its focus is on the current football season and its upcoming Super Bowl broadcast rather than talent contract specifics.
Aikman doesn’t seem particularly interested in conducting a public negotiation either. He told Deitsch that the situation is “just not something that I’m really putting a lot of energy into,” which makes sense considering his position.
He’s already collected $90 million from ESPN. He’s spent 25 seasons alongside a partner the network just committed another $108 million to. And ESPN is about to showcase the duo on the biggest television event in America.
Four years ago, ESPN spent $165 million to bring Joe Buck and Troy Aikman over from Fox. Now it has spent another $108 million making sure Buck isn’t going anywhere, leaving one very expensive question unresolved: how much will it cost to make sure Aikman stays beside him?
