Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will be together again, both with thicker wallets.
Per the New York Post, Buck is leaving Fox Sports for ESPN on a monster deal to call Monday Night Football games, a contract in the range of $60-$75 million over the next five years. Amazingly, that’s less than Aikman — who has also reportedly made the move to the MNF booth — is slated to make for the World Wide Leader. His deal is believed to be in the five-year, $92.5 million range.
Buck’s departure is the end of an era at Fox, where the 52-year-old broadcaster has worked for nearly a quarter of a century and called five Super Bowls.
How Fox will replace Buck is still up in the air, but internal candidate Kevin Burkhardt is the favorite. Fox could also explore a play for free agent Al Michaels, but he is expected to sign a deal with Amazon for their Thursday Night Football coverage. Michaels has been replaced by Mike Tirico for Sunday Night Football broadcasts on NBC.
The hiring of Buck and Aikman furthers a goal of ESPN to revamp their MNF coverage, one that started with the signing of Payton and Eli Manning for an alternate broadcast last year. Buck and Aikman will replace the three-man booth of Steve Levy, Louis Riddick and Brian Griese. Griese was recently hired by the 49ers as their quarterback coach.