Joe Buck was just like the rest of us when it came to Troy Aikman’s big move this offseason.
The longtime play-by-play voice revealed on the “Sports-Casters” podcast that he was caught off guard by Aikman’s decision to join ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” (where Buck followed suit) saying he never thought the Hall of Fame quarterback would actually leave FOX.
“Honest to God, I never saw it coming,” Buck said (h/t NY Post). “…It is true that all year long, I thought that at worst, Troy was going to do the Thursday nights on Amazon and then do the doubleheader game…the big lat,e Sunday football games, which is basically every other weekend, on Fox with me, and then he’d do the postseason and the Super Bowl.
“So his schedule would basically remain unchanged from what we had done the previous four years with Thursday night and Sunday night, and I would basically just do the Sunday games and stay at Fox. And that whole situation disintegrated fast.”
Not long after Aikman joined ESPN, Buck left FOX to join him in the MNF booth despite one year remaining on his contract with FOX.
Buck added that he was actually ready to step down from baseball duties after this year, so leaving to stay with Aikman made sense for him.
“I think when I saw [Aikman] walk out of the door, and he was gone totally, it kind of started in my head, ‘You know, what do I want to do here?’” Buck said. “Because you’re right, I’d told Fox…I was going to do baseball one mor year, which would have been this year, and then I was going to step aside, and it was time for a new voice.
“I loved every second of it, but I feel like it was time. And I’m thrilled for Joe Davis. So that plan was kind of already set up.”
The network swapping set off a chain reaction within the industry, with FOX replacing Aikman and Buck with Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olson for this season.
Once Tom Brady retires, he will replace Olson as the lead color analyst after FOX gave him a 10-year $375 million deal.
Buck was appreciative that FOX let him out of his contract in order for him to continue working with Aikman, who has been at his side for 20 seasons.
“They did not have to let me out. They offered me an extension, so it wasn’t like they were like, ‘Oh, please take him,’” Buck said. “I could have easily signed an extension there and still be there now. But they understood that I wanted to work with Troy, and I think a change is probably good for everybody.”
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