Buck has a new six-year ESPN deal while Aikman has yet to get a formal offer, and the tension reportedly boiled over before Monday night's broadcast.
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman sounded like their usual selves calling Rams-Bills on Monday night, but getting there apparently took some work. According to Front Office Sports' Ryan Glasspiegel, ESPN's top NFL broadcast team argued before kickoff at SoFi Stadium over an issue that had been quietly simmering between them.
The source of the friction: Buck recently landed a new six-year deal with ESPN that keeps him in the Monday Night Football booth through the network's next Super Bowl, while Aikman has not received a formal offer. Buck reportedly was the one who finally addressed it directly, bringing up the disparity before the game. The tension eventually eased, and by the time the broadcast started, the two sounded like the pair that has worked together for a quarter century.
ESPN declined to comment on the report. The booth's next big assignment carries extra weight given the circumstances, since Buck and Aikman are set to call the network's first Super Bowl in February, at the same SoFi Stadium where Monday's argument reportedly took place.