Hall of Fame quarterback and FOX Sports analyst Troy Aikman caused a bit of stir during Wild Card weekend with comments that he seemingly made about not being on the call for the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys.
Aikman, alongside FOX play-by-play man Joe Buck, was broadcasting the other NFC contest that Sunday between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Philadelphia Eagles, which quickly turned into a blowout. After the game came to an end, Buck asked his broadcast partner what he was looking for in the matchup between the 49ers and the Cowboys later that afternoon.
“It’s going to be a great game,” Aikman said at the time. “I think there’s a lot of people who that’d like to be calling that game.”
Aikman’s remarks quickly made the rounds on social media. Many agreed with him and made jokes about his reaction, while others criticized him for such pointed comments.
However, Aikman didn’t understand the discourse that broke out during Wild Card weekend. This Monday, after a loaded divisional-round, he finally got the chance to set the record straight.
“There were some that said I’d rather be doing that game than the game I was doing,” Aikman said Monday on the Ryen Russillo Podcast. “That wasn’t my point at all. I’m thrilled to be doing any game. Joe said that would be an amazing game. Yeah, I would have loved to have called that game. It’s a huge ball game.
“But that didn’t mean I would love to be calling it over the game I was calling, or I was upset about it. I was confused, quite honestly. When it first came out, I thought there was a chance we would be calling that game, and that if we weren’t that meant it would be on ESPN or NBC. We have that happen a lot … But I was confused when an NFC matchup went to a network that covers the AFC with CBS. I didn’t understand that; I still don’t really understand that.”
Troy Aikman wasn’t upset over not calling the 49ers-Cowboys playing game, but confused that it was assigned to CBS: pic.twitter.com/iItTYXhtfb
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Aikman is right that FOX has traditionally had the broadcast rights for NFC games. However, CBS got the 49ers-Cowboys game as a result of the expanded NFL playoffs that began last season, after paying about $70 million to get an extra Wild Card contest.
Although he didn’t get the chance to be on the call two weeks ago, Aikman will broadcast a Niners playoff game this upcoming weekend. San Francisco will play the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday.
Kickoff is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. ET on FOX.
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