Tag: Troy Aikman

Troy Aikman passionately lobbied for Jim Harbaugh’s NFL return during Ravens-Texans

Troy Aikman is a BIG fan of Jim Harbaugh coming back to the NFL.

After he finally won a National Championship with the Michigan Wolverines, it seems very likely that Jim Harbaugh will make his return to the NFL this fall.

You can apparently count Troy Aikman amongst Harbaugh’s biggest fans of his coaching.

With Harbaugh in attendance to watch his brother John’s Baltimore Ravens battle the Houston Texans in the AFC divisional round, Aikman was inspired to talk up Harbaugh’s coaching chops during ESPN’s broadcast. Before congratulating him for getting over the hump with Michigan, Aikman professed that Harbaugh has won everywhere and will make someone very happy if he comes back to an NFL sideline as a head coach in 2024:

The last we saw of Harbaugh in the NFL was when he coached the San Francisco 49ers to eight playoff wins, three consecutive NFC title game appearances, and a berth in Super Bowl 47 from 2011 to 2013. It’s difficult to say such success will immediately follow Harbaugh over a decade later, but at least he has an established track record.

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman ripped the Eagles’ poor performance in NFC wild-card loss

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman weren’t not complimentary of the Eagles on Monday night.

The Philadelphia Eagles are officially out of the playoffs, and ESPN Monday Night Football announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman didn’t hide their criticisms of the Birds in the NFC wild-card round.

As the Eagles fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the NFL playoffs, Buck couldn’t help but notice during the first half how many missed tackles were stacking up for the Eagles’ defense, once one of the NFL’s best.

After watching Philly’s defense dominate in 2022, the unit didn’t look quite the same after the departure of former defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. A lot of the same pieces were still in place, in fact.

Aikman went even further to say he thought Philly’s body language made the team look like it didn’t really care about the football game. Ouch.

Aikman continued his harsh critiques into the second half, which didn’t get better for Philly.

The Eagles fading down the stretch was one of the more bewildering developments of the NFL season, and Buck and Aikman’s commentary helped identify why it’s been on the downward slope for Philly.

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Troy Aikman ripped Lions’ Derrick Brown after he missed an easy sack on a Dak Prescott TD throw

Whew, Troy Aikman didn’t hold back.

Detroit Lions linebacker Derrick Barnes whiffed big time on Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott on a huge touchdown play, and ESPN NFL commentator Troy Aikman sure noticed it.

Rather than get a sack and notch a potential safety for Detroit, Barnes got a free rush on Prescott but couldn’t get him to the ground. The lack of a tackle lets the quarterback hit Dallas wide receiver CeeDee Lamb for a 92-yard Cowboys touchdown.

While broadcasting Saturday night’s Lions and Cowboys game, Aikman called out Barnes for not completing the play and stopping Prescott make his huge completion to Lamb for the score.

Yowza. That’s pretty rough from Aikman for Barnes, who gets close to making a huge play of his own before Prescott evades the pressure and hits Lamb for the explosive play.

While the inner Cowboys fan in Aikman probably enjoyed the electric moment, the commentator side didn’t give Barnes a break here.

Feature image courtesy of ESPN.

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Troy Aikman goes off on officials during Packers-Giants

Troy Aikman has had it with NFL officials and lengthy reviews

Troy Aikman spoke for the masses when he criticized the officials late in the first half of the Green Bay Packers-New York Giants game on Monday.

A Green Bay kickoff had hit off a Giants player before going out of bounds.

The officials, however, somehow missed it and threw a penalty flag, meaning the Giants would get the ball at the 40.

However, after another lengthy review what Aikman and everyone saw was the ruling.

“This is ridiculous what we’re watching right now,” he said from the announce booth. “We see something it takes five seconds. It takes them five minutes.

“The problem with all this is just make the call. There’s 13 seconds in the half. … just make a decision.  This is what stops all these games. And the officials, I know, they have been talked about every week but this is ridiculous, what we’re watching right now.

Why Joe Buck and Troy Aikman aren’t calling Titans – Dolphins on Monday Night Football in Week 14

There’s a good reason for this.

Yep, you read that right, and if you’re here, you’re probably wondering: What’s the deal here? It’s Monday night! There’s a NFL game on — the Tennessee Titans vs. the Miami Dolphins — and the usual pairing of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman aren’t on the air.

What gives? There’s a simple answer.

Week 14 features two Monday Night Football games at the same time. So if you flip from ESPN over to ABC, you’ll see the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants play … and it’s there that you’ll find Buck and Aikman calling that game.

So Titans-Dolphins has a second team: Chris Fowler, Dan Orlovsky, Louis Riddick and Laura Rutledge.

There’s your answer!

Troy Aikman stating he didn’t see much on controversial Calvin Ridley non-interference was a bit on the nose

Calvin Ridley couldn’t see anything either. How convenient!

There are assuredly bigger fish to fry for the Jacksonville Jaguars as they contend with Trevor Lawrence’s ankle injury. But a non-interference call from Monday night’s 34-31 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals still can’t be forgotten.

Late in the first quarter, Lawrence launched a downfield pass to Calvin Ridley. Cincinnati cornerback Jordan Battle went to contest the pass but did so while draping himself all over the receiver and literally covering Ridley’s eyes. I suppose that technically blocking a pass-catcher’s eyes is a bit of a grey area, but in this case — it definitely seemed like surefire interference.

Unfortunately for the Jaguars, no penalty would be called.

When Troy Aikman assessed the call on replay, he ironically said he didn’t “see a whole lot there.” Hmm, how convenient, because Ridley couldn’t see anything either!

I know this wasn’t Aikman’s intent, but I would’ve probably found a different way to assess a call by the refs, knowing the receiver had his eyesight blocked.

Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were just like you: ‘Thankfully’ awful Bears – Vikings game ended

They sounded more than happy that Bears – Vikings was finally over.

If you watched that awful Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings game on Monday night in which there were turnovers galore and barely any offense to speak of on either side of the ball, you weren’t alone.

Because imagine calling that game! Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were on the mic as they usually are for ESPN, and when the final whistle sounded after one of those multi-lateral final plays from the Vikings that failed, the announcers had an exchange that nailed it.

“… And with the Benny Hill music playing in the background, this game is over,” remarked Buck, with a heaviness you could feel through your TV.

“Thankfully,” Aikman replied.

Yup. Couldn’t agree more:

Jaylon Johnson dropping yet another pick-6 made Troy Aikman feel bad about even pointing it out

Hey, sometimes, you just call it as you see it.

Monday night’s Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings game got so messy that ESPN broadcasters Troy Aikman felt bad about even pointing out a player dropping yet another pick-six on the season.

After Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson dropped a potential Vikings quarterback Joshua Dobbs pick that could’ve gone back for a score, Aikman recalled how Johnson had a similar missed opportunity against the Detroit Lions the week before.

As he openly wondered if he was being too harsh to even point out Johnson’s mistakes, Buck quipped that he should just do it because everyone will eventually forget about it at the end of the day.

While this recent Johnson misery might not match that time he lost a bet and had to wear a Packers cheesehead, having Aikman and Buck openly discuss if they’re being too harsh about pointing out your repeat mistakes has to burn.

As for Aikman and Buck, this was just a very funny way of just shrugging and just calling it as you see it because, we’ll all just forget about it later.

Feature image courtesy of ESPN.

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Jets’ Quinnen Williams hits back at Troy Aikman, denies MNF comment

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Jets DT told reporters he never referred to himself as “the highest-paid decoy in football,” refuting a story told on-air Monday night.

Twenty-three years after retiring from the NFL, a defensive lineman is still coming after former Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman.

Jets defensive tackle Quinnen Williams took a moment at the end of a midweek press conference to add a comment of his own, a direct response to something Aikman had said on-air during the Jets’ 27-6 loss to the Chargers on ESPN’s Monday Night Football earlier in the week.

During a quick montage highlighting the play of Williams, Aikman spoke about the third overall draft pick from 2019 having just half a sack credited to him this season. Aikman ended the reel by stating, “Quinnen Williams, he keeps telling [head coach] Robert Saleh and [defensive coordinator] Jeff Ulbrich that they’ve got to come up with some ways to give him single opportunities so he can get some sacks. He says he’s the highest-paid decoy in football.”

Williams addressed the moment with reporters on Wednesday:

“Can I say something real quick? I seen something, like Troy Aikman said that I said something about being a decoy. I never said that. I never talked to Troy Aikman, I never said that to Troy Aikman. I don’t know where he got that from. It never came out of my mouth that I was ‘the highest-paid decoy’ or something like that he said. On Monday night or something like that? I never said that. I never talked to him before the game. I never alluded to that. It’s never been out of my mouth. I never had a conversation with him at all, so to hear him say that I said that is kind of like upsetting, that he would lie on me like that or say that I said that. That’s kind of weird to me. It was definitely misleading.”

Saleh also responded– at least to the sentiment behind Aikman’s comment- while speaking to reporters on Wednesday.

“We’re always trying to find a way to create one-on-ones for all our guys, Quinnen especially. He’s one of the better players in football. I do want to say, I do think sack production is a very overrated stat. I think it’s a cool stat that gets guys paid, but it is not the indicative number,” the coach said.

“What we’ve seen is a much different approach to the way teams protect against us. And we’re seeing a lot less double-chippers and lot more attention to Quinnen, which means Jermaine Johnson, Bryce Huff, [and others] are absolutely wreaking havoc on quarterbacks this year and opening it up. So teams have to pick their poison. You want to pay attention to Quinnen? Our other guys are going to be productive…”

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Aikman and Saleh are making essentially the same point about Williams, who is playing on a four-year, $96 million contract with $66 million in guarantees. The extra attention he gets from opposing offenses is creating opportunities for his defensive teammates, while keeping his own sack numbers low.

But Saleh certainly isn’t using him as “a decoy,” and Williams says he never said that.

Despite what Aikman said on national television.

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