For 20 years, Hall of Fame Quarterback Troy Aikman has been broadcasting games for FOX Sports and has become synonymous with America’s Game of the Week as the number one analyst with Joe Buck. However, broadcasting was not something that he always was interested in doing.
On this week’s episode of The Flying Coach Podcast with Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay and FOX NFL analyst/Good Morning Football co-host Peter Schrager, Aikman joined the guys for what is going to be a two-part interview to talk about NFL in the 1990s, the current culture of the league, production meetings, and much more.
“I had been asked for a number of years to go over to Europe and broadcast games for FOX and it just wasn’t something I was interested in,” Aikman said when asked how he ended up in the booth. “I didn’t think it was something that I’d really enjoy. I thought Deion Sanders would go into television. We thought Michael [Irvin] would, but that was kind of it. Really during that era, not many guys really talked about going into broadcasting when they got done playing.”
However, Aikman took the position alongside Cowboys broadcaster Brad Sham, who he had done a radio show with before and it helped him feel comfortable in the booth. One of Aikman’s worries was he would run out of things to say during a long game.
“When you prepare and you’re getting ready for a game, you find out there’s really quite a bit that you want to talk about. There’s not enough time really.”
Troy Aikman ended up joining FOX’s NFL coverage in 2001 as part of the number two broadcast team and would eventually take over in the number one spot when John Madden left for NBC.
When Aikman is in the production meetings with coaches and players, it is, in his words, the most fun he has doing the job because it allows him to continue to learn the game. During those meetings, Aikman realizes that coaches are going to be tight-lipped with what they say, but he makes sure to tell them that his job is different from doing an interview with the media:
“I always tell the coaches we are not the media. I think the more availability we get as broadcasters for the game, the better it is for the coaches. I am not looking to hammer anybody, but if I at least know what the plan was if it’s not going so well, I can at least say ‘this is not what they wanted to do, they were hoping to do this.’ It’s hard to tear down those walls that have been built for years.”
In order to do a successful broadcast, the crew needs to have the trust of the coaches and players to make that happen. Troy Aikman realizes how important that is because the more research he does, the more open and comfortable coaches and players will be with him.
