New alleged details have emerged from the verbal clash earlier this month between Monday Night Football broadcasters Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
Contract squabbles between the two men and ESPN led to “a heated confrontation in the broadcast booth” on October 12, Puck reported on Wednesday, October 21.
“There had been weeks of Troy becoming increasingly cold, difficult, short, making comments,” a source told the outlet.
Before their broadcast of the game between the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills on October 12, “Joe finally snapped.”
“He basically said, ‘Dude, are we really going to do this?’” the insider said. “And Troy’s position was, ‘You f***ed me over!’” Another source added, “They exchanged some very direct and honest feelings.”
Tension between the two longtime boothmates is tied to their contracts with ESPN.
Buck, 57, signed a six-year, $108 million extension with the network last month, according to The Athletic, but Aikman, 59 — whose contract expires at the end of the season and has not been offered an extension — was allegedly kept in the dark.
“He saw it as the ultimate act of betrayal,” a source said of Aikman’s thoughts on the secret contract negotiations. “They cut this deal in May and put it in a drawer. ESPN didn’t tell him, Joe didn’t tell him.”
Us has reached out to Buck and Aikman for comment. When reached by Us on Thursday, October 22, ESPN declined to comment.
Aikman is currently making $18 million per year at ESPN, but the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback was looking for a substantial raise, according to Puck.
Executives reportedly told Aikman they refused to negotiate his contract until after the end of the current NFL season.
The Athletic was first to report that Aikman and Buck got into a quarrel earlier this month, which “ultimately de-escalated, and the two had a broadcast in which viewers never would have been able to decipher that something was amiss.”
Aikman did not deny the argument between him and Buck when directly asked about it last week.
“There’s probably a time and a place for all that,” Aikman said on Dallas’ 96.7 The Ticket on October 15. “I don’t know if now is the time. I don’t know if it’s hard to figure out kind of what happened. I’ll broadcast through this season and I’ll be a free agent at the end of the year and kind of see what happens.”
Buck and Aikman are expected to be in the booth together on October 26, when the Philadelphia Eagles host the Dallas Cowboys on Monday Night Football.
