ESPN hopes spending $165 million on Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will bring glamour back to the Monday Night Football booth

New York Post

The NFL broadcasters are getting hefty paychecks to move to ESPN after decades at Fox Sports. Buck is reportedly earning $75 million over five years, while Aikman will receive $90 million over the same period. By leaving Fox, Buck and Aikman passed on calling two of the next three Super Bowls that are on Fox. Their ESPN deals will end at the end of the 2026 season, in which they'll call the first ABC/ESPN Super Bowl in February 2027. "This all leads to the question of: Why? It is about the games, right? No one watches for the announcers, correct?" says the New York Post's Andrew Marchand, who has been reporting extensively on their deals. "Internally, ESPN believes it will sell more and greater advertising, while externally, it has finally satisfied the NFL, which has been disappointed with ESPN’s crews from Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten and Booger McFarland to Steve Levy, Louis Riddick Jr. and Brian Griese. Monday Night Football, which ESPN will pay around $2.7 billion per year for on its new deal that extends for 11 years, is expected to have something of a renaissance in the next couple of seasons, because ESPN is going to add late-season flex scheduling." Meanwhile, Buck and his MNF predecessor Steve Levy exchanged kind words on Twitter. "I thank you for your friendship and grace with this Steve," Buck tweeted to Levy. "Excited to join YOUR network. Please sit next to me in the cafeteria- I don’t know many people there yet."