Every NFL player likely has a memorable low point throughout his playing career. For Troy Aikman, it came during his second season, when he had an inexcusable gaffe during a two-minute drill.
"We were in a two-minute situation at Texas Stadium and I'm calling out the play... and I got underneath the guard to get the ball snapped," Aikman said on The Ringer's "Flying Coach" podcast, co-hosted by Sean McVay and Peter Schrager. "I got underneath the guard, and the guard says, 'Hey daddy, it ain't me. You're at the wrong guy,' and I know Jimmy (Johnson) is sitting over there going, 'Jesus, what the hell's going on out here!' I'm sure he thought I was the dumbest quarterback that he'd ever had."
And you can probably ask any NFL player this, be it a Hall of Fame great like Aikman or some random one-year backup, and they'll have a similarly hilarious story that they never forgot as their answer. But does the same go for broadcasters? If you're Aikman, absolutely, and this one seemed to be a much more personal, emotional low point. The moment in question was Super Bowl XLII, largely considered one of the greatest games in NFL history.
After the game, Fox was hosting a party for the whole crew at a hotel that most members of the broadcast were staying at, but Aikman and his then-wife were in a different hotel. He just wasn't feeling up to the party, though, and opted for a dinner at a restaurant instead. It was there that he happened upon an enthusiastic Ron Jaworski, who discussed the unbelievable game with Aikman.
"...He goes, 'that catch on the helmet, who would've thought?' and I said, 'yea, it was a hell of a catch, Ron, I'm really happy for the Giants,'" Aikman said, dully. "And that's probably how I was saying it. He says, 'man, what's wrong with you?' and I said, 'Jaws, nothing's wrong, but what did I do? I didn't do anything. All I did was talk about [the game].'"
Aikman went on to explain to Jaws how he had won that game a few times, and he just wasn't getting anywhere near the same feeling of accomplishment after broadcasting it. Jaws then stared at him confusedly and walked off, leaving Aikman to turn back to his wife and make a pretty bold statement.
"I said, 'You know, I may have just called the biggest game that I'll ever call in this profession. I mean, I may look back on my career in broadcasting and this may be the biggest game that I'll ever call,'" Aikman explained. "And here we are, just an hour after the game ended, and everyone's ecstatic, what a great game and great ending, and I said, 'I could not be more miserable.'
"I mean, I felt no sense of accomplishment, nothing. And I said to her, 'Man, if this is supposed to be the pinnacle of this profession, then I'm in the wrong profession.' And I was just really down, you know... I just know that that was rock bottom for me in this profession."
But while it was rock bottom, it was also the point at which things rebounded. Aikman says that he doesn't know what prompted the change in heart to occur, but a switch was definitely flipped, and from then on, broadcasting has returned as something that leaves him with a great sense of accomplishment.
"There will never be the feelings you get when you're in the arena and you're actually doing it, but now I do get satisfaction from my job," Aikman said. "And I don't know why it changed all of a sudden, but it changed after that Super Bowl and I'm glad that it did, because if it hadn't, I just was not going to be able to continue. And you want to walk away from your job feeling like you've done something worthwhile and noteworthy, and I do now when I leave the stadiums."
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