Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in the broadcast booth during Monday Night Football. Photo by Allen Kee / ESPN Images
By Sam Neumann on

Troy Aikman has spent the past few years turning into the broadcaster who says what everyone else is thinking.

Since coming over to ESPN, he’s become unafraid to call out bad officiating, sloppy quarterback play, and a lackluster product without a hint of sugarcoating. He’s sparred with ESPN rules analyst Russell Yurk during broadcasts. He’s blasted bad offenses and questioned coaching decisions. He’s become appointment viewing because of it.

The question is whether it’s calculated or just Troy Aikman caring less about what people think. According to Joe Buck, it’s the latter.

“I think everybody evolves and cares a little less on the ‘I wonder what they’re going to think’ meter,” Buck said on The Press Box podcast when asked about Aikman’s give-no-f**ks era. “It doesn’t mean he cares less about doing his job. I think he cares as much as he ever has. I think he prepares the same way in 2026, now, than he did in 2007 — I honestly do.”

Buck pointed to a specific moment early in their partnership that shaped how Aikman approached criticism on the broadcast. Aikman made a comment about Donovan McNabb being inaccurate during a game. After the broadcast, reporters approached McNabb in the locker room and told him Aikman had called him inaccurate. McNabb had to respond to the criticism, which created a news cycle Aikman didn’t anticipate.

“Then he kind of had to answer to that criticism, and then it becomes, is it worth it? Do I want to answer for this? Do I want to really tell people how I really feel so that I’ve got to answer this for the next couple of weeks? It’s kind of a pain in the ass, and nobody likes being in the center of that stuff,” Buck said. “I think we all kind of recoil in that stuff. And I think as time has gone on, I think he’s been more and more willing to just kind of say how he feels, whether it’s about officiating or it’s about a quarterback or whatever.

“I told him back then, I said, ‘It’s different if I say it because I didn’t play the game. I mean, I did in high school, but I didn’t go to the Super Bowl — and I didn’t win three of them — and I’m not in Canton. And you’ve earned that, and you’ve done your homework, and you’ve looked at the film, and you’ve done all that needs to be done to have a really smart opinion on what we’re watching. And if that’s how you feel, well, who is more qualified to make that comment than you? And my answer then and my answer now is nobody.”

. Aikman’s been thriving in what Awful Announcing’s Sean Keeley called his “give-no-f*cks era,” without worrying about whether it creates headlines or backlash. He’s not a hot-take machine. He’s just honest about what he’s watching.

Buck celebrated that evolution during his Press Box appearance and acknowledged he can see when Aikman gets frustrated with questionable calls during broadcasts.

“And I know when he gets frustrated, I can see that on him. If a call happens, like ‘Come on, that’s roughing the passer?’ or whatever that might be,” Buck said. “And it’s OK to disagree with Russell Yurk or Mike Pereira or Dean Blandino and get into those differences of opinion, and I think that makes it interesting. I think it makes it way better than everybody who’s just nodding their head, going, ‘OK, well, that must be right. Second and four.'”

That willingness to push back against conventional wisdom has defined Aikman’s tenure at ESPN. The network hired him and Buck away from Fox in 2022 with deals worth a combined $165 million for their credibility and chemistry. What ESPN got was a broadcaster who refused to stay static. The Troy Aikman they hired in 2022 isn’t the one viewers watch now. And as Buck made clear, that’s made Monday Night Football better than the alternative.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann