Troy Aikman is leaving Fox to join ESPN as the analyst for “Monday Night Football,” and he is being paid big bucks to do so.
Aikman reportedly exercised an opt-out for his contract and received offers to leave Fox. Amazon, which has the “Thursday Night Football” package, apparently pursued him. But Aikman instead is going to ESPN.
According to the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand, Aikman is being paid just over $90 million on a five-year deal with ESPN. You may recall that Tony Romo received a 10-year, $180 million deal from CBS. Aikman’s new contract is designed to pay him slightly more than Romo in average annual value.
When Aikman played from 1993-2000 for the Dallas Cowboys, he was on an eight-year, $44 million deal. Although Aikman would be making $30 million-$40 million per year as a quarterback in today’s NFL, he’s earning significantly more per year as a broadcaster than he did as a player, even adjusting for inflation.
The temptation of making $18 million per year, as well as the respect that comes with being paid the most of any analyst, likely made the decision to leave for ESPN pretty easy for Aikman.
Now Fox not only has to worry about retaining Joe Buck, but it also needs to find a replacement for Aikman as the analyst for its No. 1 NFL announcing team. The network reportedly has a list of potential replacement candidates.
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