Joe Buck “Expected” to Leave Fox to Join Troy Aikman on ESPN
Monday Night Football is back under the big lights!
According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, ESPN is closing in on a big fish, potentially reeling in Joe Buck to join his old Fox-mate Troy Aikman in the booth for Monday Night Football beginning this fall.
NEWS: Joe Buck is expected to leave Fox Sports to join ESPN as the new voice of Monday Night Football, The Post has learned. https://t.co/M6Rkr6xyRg
— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) March 11, 2022
Marchand reports that Buck was granted permission by Fox Sports to talk to ESPN, and a deal is “expected to come to fruition.”
Buck had one year at $11 million remaining on his Fox deal. He could bag a deal worth $75 million with ESPN.
Buck is also expected to become a producer on several ESPN+ projects. He is reunited with Aikman, whom he has had the call of NFL Sundays the past twenty years since the duo was tapped to replace John Madden and Pat Summeral on the Fox Network broadcast.
Aikman just recently inked a five-year contract with ESPN that will pay him upwards of $18.5 million per year.
The tandem of Buck and Aikman means that ESPN and Monday Night Football is back as a big time player for NFL games. Ever since MNF was demoted from ABC to ESPN following the 2003 season — at the time NBC grabbed Al Michaels and Madden, making Sunday Night the prime prime-time telecast — Monday night has become something of an afterthought with a mix of different broadcast booths over the years; it’s longest lasting booth being Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden, before Gruden returned to coaching in 2018.
ESPN is expected to get a Super Bowl in 2027.
Where does this leave Fox? They need a top play-by-play man. Could it be Al Michaels? Michaels was rumored to be either heading to Amazon’s Thursday Night booth, or ESPN’s Monday Night booth. With Buck potentially set for ESPN, could Michaels take Buck’s seat at Fox? The network will be broadcasting the Super Bowl next season.
Fox could also look at internal candidates like Kevin Burkhardt or Kenny Albert to fill that role as the “number 1” play-by-play guy. It will also be fascinating to see whom Fox will look toward to cover the World Series. Joe Davis typically fills in as the number 1 play-by-play guy for Buck during the season.