Media
Aikman has been matter-of-fact about his belief that ESPN intends to find a new broadcast partner for Joe Buck.
For a Patriots fan, particularly one with a sentimental bent, watching full-game broadcasts on YouTube of their six Super Bowl victories is and will always be time well spent.
Sure, the best moments from those victories — and coincidingly, the best broadcasting moments — do come to mind without a visual nudge.
I’m thinking of Al Michaels sounding appropriately flabbergasted and yet instantly identifying Malcolm Butler on the little-known Patriots cornerback’s history-altering interception in Super Bowl XLIX: “Pass is intercepted at the goal line by Malcolm Butler … unreal!”
Then color analyst Cris Collinsworth almost immediately called out the absurdity of the Seahawks’ play call, doing his job as expertly as Michaels did his on the NBC broadcast.
Or, going back to the birth of the dynasty, Fox color analyst John Madden expressing his skepticism to broadcast partner Pat Summerall about the Patriots’ tactics when they got the ball back with 1:21 left in a tie game with the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI: “With no timeouts, I think the Patriots have to just run the clock out. You’ve got to play for overtime now.”
Madden acknowledged that he “kind of liked what the Patriots are doing” when young quarterback Tom Brady began marching them down the field. And when Brady casually spiked (and then caught) the ball before Adam Vinatieri’s winning 48-yard field goal, Madden perfectly capped his change of heart: “This is amazing. What Tom Brady just did,” he said, “gives me goosebumps.”
You know all this, I’m sure, perhaps even by heart. But the reason I bring all of that up now is not just to bask in happy flashbacks.
It’s because the best full NFL game broadcast I have ever heard is Joe Buck and Troy Aikman’s call of the Patriots’ comeback from a 28-3 third quarter deficit to defeat the Falcons, 34-28, in Super Bowl LI on Fox.
Buck and Aikman were beyond excellent from the opening kickoff right through James White’s winning touchdown in overtime. They never declared it was over, even with Atlanta holding its 25-point lead. They never looked ahead.
Instead, they did the disciplined thing, calling the game as played out in front of them, resisting hyperbole, and hitting the right notes of marvel and incredulity as the Patriots somehow did every single thing they needed to do to have a chance.
“We are at the two-minute warning,” said Buck as the Falcons clung to a 28-20 lead, “which will allow everybody including the two guys talking throughout all of this to catch their breath. 1:57. Wow.”
Their performance on the broadcast of that instantly historic game 10 seasons ago convinced me that Buck and Aikman form the best tandem in an NFL booth since Summerall and Madden in their 1980s heyday.
Buck and Aikman remain excellent after moving to ESPN in 2022 and bringing a big-game feel back to “Monday Night Football.” And that’s why it’s such a bummer that their partnership, which goes back to 2002 while they were at Fox, appears to be coming to an end.
The abbreviated version of one of the juicier sports-media stories in a while: Buck signed a six-year, $108 million extension with ESPN/Disney in May. The deal was kept under wraps publicly, and per reporting by Puck’s Dylan Byers, Aikman was left in the dark about it even though he is represented by the same agency as Buck.
Aikman reportedly was furious, feeling like Buck betrayed him, and tensions mounted until they nearly came to blows in the booth before the Oct. 12 Rams-Bills game.
Aikman has been matter-of-fact about his belief that ESPN intends to find a new broadcast partner for Buck, and has talked openly on a couple of radio interviews about finding his own next landing spot.
While conventional wisdom suggests ESPN has Fox free agent-to-be Greg Olsen in mind, Aikman’s next step is murky. CBS seemed to be a possibility, but JJ Watt recently signed a long-term deal to stick around as the lead analyst alongside Jim Nantz. Right now, there’s doesn’t seem to be a path for Aikman to land an analyst job worthy of his stature.
Meanwhile, ESPN has its first Super Bowl broadcast this season, with Buck and Aikman on the call. No doubt we’ll all act like we’re body language experts when that almost-certain farewell arrives at the conclusion of Super Bowl LXI on Feb. 14.
It’ll be a memorable broadcast, at least for that reason. But I’ll always remember Buck and Aikman for their best broadcast, 10 seasons ago.
Go to YouTube. Watch it again. Revel in the Patriots’ magic. And appreciate a couple of broadcasters that were at the very top of their game.
