Monday Night Lights: ESPN Sign Joe Buck, Troy Aikman In $160M, Five-Year Deal
Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 06:52PM By Barry Janoff
March 16, 2022: "Monday, Monday
“So good to me.
“Monday mornin', it was all I hoped it would be.
“Oh Monday mornin', Monday mornin' couldn't guarantee
“That Monday evenin' you would still be here with me."
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman may not sing like The Mamas & the Papas, but people will get to hear their voices on ESPN’s Monday Night Football beginning in September.
Following months of speculation, ESPN today confirmed that Buck and Aikman would be the new voices of Monday Night Football.
Financial terms of the deals were not revealed, but according to Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports, “At nearly $95 million over five years, Aikman will pass Tony Romo as sports' highest-paid broadcaster. Buck will make about $65 million over five years.”
Buck and Aikman are scheduled to make their Monday Night Football debut on Sept. 12. The full NFL schedule will be released in early May.
As he enters his 29th consecutive season calling NFL games, Buck will become the eighth play-by-play voice of Monday Night Football.
Buck and Aikman have been together since they became the No. 1 NFL on-air team on Fox in 2002.
“The opportunity to be a voice on Monday Night Football, adding to its legacy and being a part of the future of the NFL on ESPN, has me motivated and reflective,” Aikman said via ESPN. “As a kid in California, the voices of Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell, and my mom’s personal favorite, Don Meredith, echoed throughout our living room each week.
“Joe and I are humbled to be part of that same tradition that has existed for more than 50 years across generations of football fans. I am looking forward to the next several years with ESPN and all our new teammates.”
Offered Buck on social media, “Beyond excited for the next chapter of my life. Here we go!!”
“Everything about Monday Night Football, including the broadcast, set the standard for the modern NFL experience,” Buck said via ESPN. “My earliest memories of walking around football stadiums are tagging along with my dad as he called Monday Night Football on radio.
"To return to the stadium on Monday nights with Troy — who I have the utmost comfort with and confidence in — and begin a new chapter, for us and ESPN, has me excited about this season and our future.”
As part of the agreement, Buck and Aikman will both contribute content to ESPN+, with more details to be shared.
ESPN said it would return Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli for ten games as an alternate broadcast.
Lisa Salters, Monday Night Football’s longest-tenured sideline reporter, will return for her 11th season on the series. John Parry will again be the officiating analyst.
“When you have the opportunity to bring in the iconic, longest-running NFL broadcasting duo, you take it, especially at a time when we are on the cusp of a new era in our expanding relationship with the NFL,” Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, ESPN and Sports Content, said via the network.
“The NFL continues to ascend, and we now have more games than ever before, providing additional opportunities for Joe, Troy and our deep roster of commentators.”
In the upcoming 2022-23 NFL season, ESPN’s portfolio of games will increase from 20 to 22, with the addition of an exclusive Monday Night Football game on ABC and an exclusive Sunday international game on ESPN+.
Including the Week 18 doubleheader, which began this past season, ESPN will have three weeks with multiple games this season. That number jumps to five beginning in the 2023-24 season and continues for ten seasons.
ESPN will continue to televise the Pro Bowl, resulting in a 23rd game in the 2022-23 season.
Aikman’s NFL Hall of Fame playing career began in 1989, when the Dallas Cowboys selected the quarterback with the No. 1 overall pick out of UCLA in the NFL Draft.
His 12 years in the league featured victories in Super Bowls XXVII, XXVIII and XXX. 
Aikman retired from the NFL after the 2000-01 season and immediately went into the booth, working the 2001-02 season for Fox Sports, where he remained for the past two decades.
He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2006.
Buck made his NFL debut during the 1994-95 season, calling a full schedule of games for Fox Sports, a role he has continued each subsequent year.
Buck has also called 24 World Series, 22 MLB All-Star games and five golf U.S. Opens.
He has been named the National Sports Media Association’s National Sportscaster of the Year four times: 2002-03-04 and 2006.
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