Time out from NFL games, hot starts (Chiefs), shocking starts (Chargers), bad injuries (6-QB), coaches on hot seats (3).

Time out from the College football wars (LSU-Ole Miss-Ohio State-Texas-Oregon)

Time out from the Pennant Races in baseball and the final week of Wildcard must win games.

Time out too from the opening of NHL-NBA camps.

Time in to talk about the NFL-on-TV, and the free agent bidding war about to break out for the lead TV analysts.

Fans love the NFL-on-TV, love the analysts, the commentary, the opinions, the guessing.

And here we are, everyone of the great analysts becomes a free agent at the end of the season, everyone.  Channel switching will be replaced by talent-switching.

It will be about money too.  Troy Aikman..JJ Watt..Greg Olson will all be on the open market.  And so might be the troubled off-TV star Tony Romo after his DUI arrest.

All are chasing bigger paydays to get closer to what Tom Brady got two years back from Fox.

It all started with the likes of Howard Cosell, Dandy Don Meredith and Frank Gifford back in the day in the early days of Monday Night Football.  Talent and big dollars.

Now we have games on all the networks and the arrival of streaming services too.

Here’s a really interesting look at how we got here with the best guys you like on your TV, courtesy of the sports business site Front Office Sports.com.

Enjoy it.

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As soon as news broke that Joe Buck was signing a $100 million–plus contract extension with ESPN, the phone calls and texts began: What’s up with Troy Aikman?

After all, the legendary former Cowboys quarterback has been joined at the hip with Buck since 2002. They spent 20 years as a team at Fox Sports before jumping to ESPN together in 2022. Since taking over at Monday Night Football, their profile and influence have only increased. In my book, they’re the best current broadcast duo calling NFL games.

Last week, ESPN negotiated a six-year extension with Buck worth $108 million, according to The Athletic. Aikman has to be next in line, right? Not necessarily, or at least not for a while, warn sources, even though Aikman and Buck are represented by the same talent agency, CAA. As one source told Front Office Sports: “The big question to me: Why wasn’t Troy renewed at the same time as Joe?”

There are several possible reasons. First, there’s a big pay gap between color commentators like Aikman and play-by-play announcers like Buck. Going back to John Madden, game analysts are the star performers who make more money. Shortly after Aikman signed a five-year deal worth $18 million a year in 2022, Tom Brady completely reset the market for game analysts with a 10-year deal at Fox Sports worth $37.5 million per year. So one reason for the delay could be Aikman and ESPN trying and failing to find the sweet spot between Aikman’s $18 million and Brady’s $37.5 million. 

Second, the looming game of musical chairs among color commentators could be another factor. Tony Romo could be a goner at CBS after being put on indefinite leave. And rival analysts like Fox’s Greg Olsen, Amazon Prime Video’s Kirk Herbstreit, and CBS’s J.J. Watt are each up after this season. That gives both sides options. Put it all together, and you have a tricky, delicate negotiation that could take time. 

As for ESPN, it’s declining to address Aikman and Buck’s expiring contracts until after Super Bowl LXI on Feb. 14, 2027. “With this historic season for ESPN now underway, our entire focus is on bringing fans the best possible football coverage, culminating with our first Super Bowl,” says Josh Krulewitz, ESPN’s EVP of communications. “To that end, we won’t be addressing talent contract specifics before the Super Bowl.” 

Are the two sides talking? Sure. But multiple sources warn: No deal is imminent for Aikman. That raises some interesting questions, especially with ESPN poised to televise its historic first two Super Bowls after the NFL’s 2026 and 2030 seasons.

Let’s start with money. The 59-year-old Aikman is now in the final season of a five-year, $90 million deal. At $18 million a year, he’s tied with Romo as the second-highest-paid NFL game analyst behind Brady.

Under his reported new deal, the 57-year-old Buck is set to jump to $18 million a year from his current $15 million. If ESPN were to give Aikman a similar 20% raise, that would take him to $21.6 million a year. Yes, he’d pass Romo, but he’d still be well behind Brady. That might not be good enough. Especially if Aikman wants “Brady Money.” 

There’s an intriguing backstory here. When Fox signed Brady to his monster 10-year, $375 million deal back in 2022, Aikman felt slighted by his longtime bosses at Fox. 

After all, Aikman had successfully called six Super Bowls with Buck for Fox. He was nothing but professional over his successful two-decade run. Yet here was his longtime employer leaving him dangling while showering riches on a TV rookie, albeit one with seven Super Bowl rings.

According to Aikman, his issue with Fox wasn’t money—it was its lack of communication. During negotiations, management kept him in the dark. In fact, Aikman said Fox didn’t even make him a final offer before letting him walk to ESPN.

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