For the first time in a long time, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will be part of a three-person booth as Jason Kelce joins them on Monday Night Football.
Kelce joined ESPN’s Monday Night Countdown for this NFL season after retiring from a 13-year playing career with the Philadelphia Eagles. And with the Eagles playing their home opener against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football, ESPN will put their shiny new analyst and a Philly fan favorite in Kelce on centerstage.
Aikman announced the news Monday morning on his personal social media page, stating Kelce will be joining Buck and himself in the booth for the third quarter. Actually, Aikman tagged the wrong Joe Buck in the post, so technically he announced Kelce will be joining a person with 51 followers named Tom Clements and himself in the booth, but we can safely assume Clements won’t actually be there.
Shortly after Aikman’s post, Buck poked fun at his longtime broadcast partner for the social media gaffe, while also celebrating the news of Kelce joining them in the booth.
Hey!!! This is gonna be amazing. @JasonKelce in the booth breaking it down for the Falcons and Eagles tonight on MNF….That said – TKA. My X handle is @buck. God only knows who has the account you tagged. Hoping for the best on that. As the kids say – LFG!! https://t.co/orx9sUrjJz
— Joe Buck (@Buck) September 16, 2024
“This is gonna be amazing,” Buck wrote. “Jason Kelce in the booth breaking it down for the Falcons and Eagles tonight on MNF.”
Buck and Aikman have been broadcast partners since 2002, and while they’re well-known as a duo, the longest-tenured broadcast crew in NFL history did begin as a trio. Cris Collinsworth joined Buck and Aikman for three seasons from 2002-04 before he left for NBC when they acquired the rights to Sunday Night Football in 2005.
Kelce’s cameo in the booth, however, is probably nothing more than a way of giving the Philly fans what they want. ESPN could have put Kelce on the ManningCast, but they want to showcase their new studio analyst. Last week, the ManningCast garnered an average of 872,000 viewers while the main broadcast with Buck and Aikman drew an audience of nearly 20 million.
