DALLAS — Troy Aikman's time with the FOX Sports is not officially over, but it sounds like it.
Of the many developments in the current NFL offseason, the next destination of some of the top national voices in the business has become a priority ahead of the players and actual games.
Because some of these guys are making more than the players and coaches themselves.
Troy Aikman, Al Michaels and Joe Buck are all rumored to be heading to different networks next season, as they are now all three enjoying a bidding war for their respective services between NBC, ESPN and Amazon.
Fox Sports, where Buck and Aikman have been partnered for two decades to form arguably the best NFL booth in the league, does not sound like it wants to partake in the bidding war figures floating at these three guys.
That is the only reason why Buck and Aikman would split.
On Monday afternoon at NorthPark Center in Dallas, Aikman joined former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Babe Laufenberg to promote the annual Children's Cancer Fund Gala, which will be held on Friday, April 22.
Aikman can't say too much just yet about where he will wind up, but it doesn't sound like FOX.
"There's been a lot of conversation about what's going to happen with me, and most of it's fairly accurate," Aikman told us media members present. "I can't make a definitive statement just yet."
Longtime DFW sports anchor Mike Doocy of FOX 4 KDFW asked Aikman if he would see Aikman at his company picnic this year.
"If I'm invited as a guest you might," Aikman said, tongue in cheek.
At this point, Aikman is used to the speculation, and it sounds as if all of this is done but the announcement.
"I've got a pretty good idea what's going to happen for me. There's still a lot of dust to be settled and just waiting for all of that to happen before any definitive announcements are made," he said. "It's been an interesting ride, 21 years with FOX, 21 great years. To be 20 years with the same broadcast partner, same producer for all 21 years that I've done this job. That doesn't just happen.
"Whatever ends up happening, when it's all said and done, to still be the lead analyst for what looks to be the next five years anyways is something I'm real proud of."
According to reports from Andrew Marchand of The New York Post, Aikman is looking at an offer of more than $18 million to call games.
If Aikman plans to call games for the next five years, and the offer is more than $18 million per season, that's a total of approximately $90 million.
By comparison, Aikman made about $55 million during his 12-year NFL career while playing quarterback for the Cowboys.
"When I retired I didn't really know what my future was," he said. "I knew I was going into broadcasting for a year or two, and then I'd figure out what I'd want to do with myself. Now, 21 years later, to be in this situation and to have the salaries get to where they've gotten has been pretty amazing.
"We've had people on the [NFL] officiating side, for instance, who have left the league office because they can make more money in TV than they can working their jobs in the league. It all seems a little backwards, but I'm not complaining about it."
The sad element to this potential development is that it could break up a broadcast tandem that is as good as any in sports.
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman play off each other so well, and so effortlessly, in part because they have formed a genuine friendship.
"We have been through a lot in our profession, and in our personal lives," Aikman said. "We have paralleled a lot in our personal lives, and even helped each other get through a lot of that. I know that's not the norm.
"He's truly one of my best friends.
"I think there's probably more that could be said, and I think there will be in the right time. There has been some disappointment how that was taken for granted by some, but he's been a fantastic partner and in my mind the best in the business. There's nothing I'd love more than to continue to work with him."
If that happens, it just doesn't sound like it will continue at FOX.
