Published Oct. 15, 2026 Updated Oct. 16, 2026 8:04 AM PT

Troy Aikman is slated to call Super Bowl LXI as a color commentator for ESPN in February.

After that? Who knows.

An inductee of both the college and pro football halls of fame, Aikman has been in the booth with play-by-play announcer Joe Buck for 25 years — at Fox for the first two decades and on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” since 2022. Based on comments Aikman made Thursday morning, that could change after the legendary UCLA and Dallas Cowboys quarterback’s contract runs out following the NFL season.

“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,” Aikman said inan appearance on KTCK-FM (96.7) in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “But I’m looking forward to whatever the rest of this year does hold, with the Super Bowl and all that and where my next landing spot may be.”

Buck’s contract with ESPN also was set to expire after the season, but he and the network agreed to a six-year, $108-million extension, according to the Athletic. ESPN has not announced the deal.

“We won’t be addressing talent contract specifics publicly before the Super Bowl,” ESPN executive vice president of communications Josh Krulewitz said in a statement at the time. The network declined to comment for this article.

On Wednesday, Front Office Sports reported “unspoken tension” between Aikman and Buck since the latter’s contract extension. Before Monday night’s Buffalo Bills-Rams game at SoFi Stadium, FOS reports, Buck brought up the matter to his broadcast partner, and an argument ensued. The situation reportedly had cooled by the time they went on the air.

Aikman laughed when that report was mentioned during his radio interview.

“Well, I think there’s probably a time and a place for all that to be discussed,” he said. “I don’t know if now is the time. I don’t know that it’s hard to figure out kind of what happened.”

Plenty can happen between now and February. If Aikman moves on from ESPN, a possible landing spot could be at CBS, where J.J. Watt has filled in as lead analyst since the network put Tony Romo on indefinite leave this summer after his arrest on suspicion of operating while intoxicated. On Oct. 2, CBS Sports announced it and Romo “mutually agreed to part ways.”

A possible replacement for Aikman on “MNF” could be Greg Olsen, a onetime lead analyst at Fox before being bumped down to the network’s No. 2 team to make room for Tom Brady. Olsen’s contract with Fox expires after this season as well.

Or ESPN could find someone from within the company. Jason Kelce and Kurt Warner handle some color analyst duties for international games on NFL Network, which was acquired by ESPN this year. Also, Front Office Sports speculated on social media that Pat McAfee‘s alternative Super Bowl LXI broadcast on ESPNU could serve as a “MNF” audition for the host.

McAfee, however, responded in the post’s comments section, saying that scenario “isn’t real.”

“There’s been zero conversation about this,” McAfee wrote.

McAfee, who is an analyst on pregame show “Monday Night Countdown” and is slated to host six alternative broadcasts of Monday night games on ESPN2, on Thursday also addressed the issue on “The Pat McAfee Show.”

“I am not supposed to be a color commentator for football,” he said. “That is something I’ve decided. I had a chance to try it a couple times. I hated it. I got bored. ... I’m not supposed to be in a football booth, especially in the traditional color commentator [role]. That decision has been made years ago.”