Troy Aikman shouldn’t be reprimanded for the recent controversy he caused on Monday Night Football, but that doesn’t excuse his comment from being “dumb.”
Monday night, Aikman assessed a questionable roughing the passer call during the first half of the Kansas City Chiefs matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders. Aikman condemned the penalty flag being thrown after Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones hit Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, adding, “My hope is the competition committee looks at this in the next set of meetings and, you know, we take the dresses off.”
Troy Aikman: "My hope is the [NFL] Competition Committee looks at this in the next set of meetings, and you know, we take the dresses off." pic.twitter.com/5DqdLJ8Ccx
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 11, 2022
The comment garnered some backlash as Aikman could have conveyed his belief that the penalty was soft and egregious without using terminology to imply women are inferior to men. Thursday morning, the ESPN Monday Night Football analyst joined The Musers on Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket in Dallas to address his controversial comments.
“Yeah, I mean, my comments were dumb. Just shouldn’t have made them, just dumb remarks on my part,” Aikman told The Ticket according to The Dallas Morning News.
“But the other part of … what came from that, what I said was that it implied that I’m not in favor of protecting the quarterbacks, which could not be further from the truth,” Aikman continued. “I’m totally in favor of the protection that the quarterbacks are afforded, and all players for that matter. But there’s no question there has been over-enforcement of the protection for quarterbacks.”
What Aikman said did not deserve public punishment from his employer. What Aikman said was dumb and it was called out as such. Most reasonable people are able to understand that line of demarcation. Some outlets, however, began drooling when they saw the social media criticism of Aikman and used it as an opportunity to boast their delusive idea of the “woke mob,” even though no one was really calling for his job.
Aikman portrayed an outdated mentality by implying football players are strong and women are weak, therefore the NFL shouldn’t act like ladies. It’s an expression that should have already been retired, Aikman was late to the retirement ceremony, but he seems to recognize that now.
The comment was dumb, Aikman admitted it was dumb, hopefully, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback doesn’t use similar terminology in the future, and we can move on.
