News: Report: Troy Aikman poised to leave Fox not for Amazon but ESPN

[DCCowboys11]

Good. Cowboys are on FOX a lot. Now I won’t have to listen to him and his negativity as much. Even though he speaks the truth a lot, as a fan I already know the front office sucks and don’t want to be reminded all the time.

 

[atlantacowboy]

That's part of the appeal of the league nowadays.
Franchises that have been terrible for a decade or more can suddenly put together a team contends for a championship.
Bengals and Bills were among the AFC's best in 80's and early 90's; both endured three decades of futility before resurging recently.
Washington and Dallas tumbled from their lofty perches to being bad to middling in this century (a few division titles and playoff appearances for both).
San Francisco kept being a contender into the early 2000s - then had 7 losing seasons out of 8 (one .500 year). But from 2011 through 2021, the 49ers have been in 5 NFC Championship games and 2 Super Bowls.
Heck- just four postseasons ago, Jacksonville was one quarter away from making in to the Super Bowl -
and Philadelphia won it.
At the start of the 2022 NFL calendar year - which teams that looks like longshots to even a have a good season - break through and duplicate what the Bengals did?

I guess that depends on your team. Cowboy fans from 70's would take that version over the free agency era any day. It was great knowing all your favorite players were returning every year. I knew the whole team by number in 1977. "Team" being the operative word. Those were true teams. Todays teams are usually a collection of hired guns selling their services to the highest bidder.

In regard to TV, the churning of rosters every year makes projecting MNF games a complete crapshoot...........which is why MNF usually sucks.

 

[Captain-Crash]

maybe skip and troy can do monday night football and make each other happy at half time.

 

[atlantacowboy]

And then it begins.....Sean Payton to join Fox.. Been telling you guys all along who thought he was setting up to come to Dallas.. Hogwash, he sure as heck would never work for Jerry. He is burned out on coaching and needs time with his family, plus earn more than he has earned before. How can you turn that down?

Very few thought he would be coaching in Dallas. For one, we would have been on the hook to compensate New orleans if we had hired him. And second, Sean is a bit burned out of coaching, He discovered its not as much fun without a HOF QB. His ascension to the booth was far more likely than a HC gig in 2022.

 

[Motorola]

I guess that depends on your team. Cowboy fans from 70's would take that version over the free agency era any day. It was great knowing all your favorite players were returning every year. I knew the whole team by number in 1977. "Team" being the operative word. Those were true teams. Todays teams are usually a collection of hired guns selling their services to the highest bidder.

In regard to TV, the churning of rosters every year makes projecting MNF games a complete crapshoot...........which is why MNF usually sucks.

As far as game matchups for the five networks (CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN, NFL Network) with (almost) exclusive rights for the NFL regular season:
All 32 teams get a game on Thursday Night Football... be it on FOX and / or the NFL Network.
Games for Sunday night on NBC are more selective: Playoff contenders from recent seasons, along with longstanding franchise rivalries get the nod.
The same is in effect for the national - late Sunday afternoon games (4:30 Eastern /3:30 Central time) on both FOX and CBS.

However - the 2021 MNF slate wasn't a crapshoot; it was created to be very unappealing - thus failing to attract viewers.
For this past regular season - division rivalries dominated on MNF - 8 games out of 17.
But why three of them being in the NFC North - Green Bay once- but Chicago twice?
Lions @ Packers was the week 2 MNF matchup.
Packers 11-1 v. their division 2019 + 2020.
Super Bowl LV participants Buccaneers & Chiefs played one time ONLY - both hosting the game ....
and their opponent was the pathetic Giants.
Bills and Titans were in the AFC Championship Games the two years prior to this postseason.
But both appeared only one time on MNF in 2021 - against each other.
Meanwhile - the Raiders APPEARED TWICE in the first four weeks -
Sept 13th ___Baltimore @ Las Vegas.
Oct 4th___Raiders @ Chargers.

NFL fans have been denigrating the MNF broadcast crew put forth by ESPN for the last decade.
But in my opinion- the dreck slate that the league parcels out to them is THE MAIN ISSUE THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED.

 

[atlantacowboy]

As far as game matchups for the five networks (CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN, NFL Network) with (almost) exclusive rights for the NFL regular season:
All 32 teams get a game on Thursday Night Football... be it on FOX and / or the NFL Network.
Games for Sunday night on NBC are more selective: Playoff contenders from recent seasons, along with longstanding franchise rivalries get the nod.
The same is in effect for the national - late Sunday afternoon games (4:30 Eastern /3:30 Central time) on both FOX and CBS.

However - the 2021 MNF slate wasn't a crapshoot; it was created to be very unappealing - thus failing to attract viewers.
For this past regular season - division rivalries dominated on MNF - 8 games out of 17.
But why three of them being in the NFC North - Green Bay once- but Chicago twice?
Lions @ Packers was the week 2 MNF matchup.
Packers 11-1 v. their division 2019 + 2020.
Super Bowl LV participants Buccaneers & Chiefs played one time ONLY - both hosting the game ....
and their opponent was the pathetic Giants.
Bills and Titans were in the AFC Championship Games the two years prior to this postseason.
But both appeared only one time on MNF in 2021 - against each other.
Meanwhile - the Raiders APPEARED TWICE in the first four weeks -
Sept 13th ___Baltimore @ Las Vegas.
Oct 4th___Raiders @ Chargers.

NFL fans have been denigrating the MNF broadcast crew put forth by ESPN for the last decade.
But in my opinion- the dreck slate that the league parcels out to them is THE MAIN ISSUE THAT NEEDS TO BE CORRECTED.

Well, I think the main point you are dancing around here is that MNF is no longer "special". Historically, it was a monopoly and the league always gave them the weeks marquee match-up. It is now one of 3 prime time games and the worst of the 3. I agree the league is not prioritizing the game, and that might be b/c the league office doesn't like ESPN. The poor scheduling could be pay-back for the network's ferocious reporting on criminal players, concussions, and CTE. There were literally people people on ESPN calling for an end to football.

The league anointed NBC and has intentionally made SNF the marquee game and a lot of the ability to deliver such a game is the flex scheduling........ a very useful tool in a year to year league. Only the Sunday afternoon games can be flexed to sunday night. So, it is in the interest of the league to try to make the MNF and thursday night something less than a marquee match-up.

 

[sideon]

The broadcast means nothing to me.

If I want to see a game I watch it, if I don't it doesn't matter who is calling the game.

I'm shocked they are paid as much as they are and people think the ratings have any bearing on it at all.

No one is providing info that is worth about a million a game to anyone.

Madden and Summerall made football games legendary.

 

[blueblood70]

If anything, the game is SO much different now than when a guy like Aikman played....I don't really see where he provides insight much at all.

All I know is.....when I tune into that 4:25 EST game in November I don't care who says what in the booth....its about what happens on the field.

I won't not watch if they half botch it.

same here hard to care less whos calling the game as i can watch and figure it all out myself,

 

[fivetwos]

Madden and Summerall made football games legendary.

Part of that was innovative. Kinda like The Beatles for pop music.

I'm just surprised networks pay so much money to these guys when there's a line of guys that could be equally as good and willing to do it.

A lot of it now....not so much with Romo (guess that's why people think he is so great)....but with many others, is the constant 'back in my day' crap....even if it IS true.

 

[CouchCoach]

The NFL no longer has a TNF game on a network, not even cable, only on a stream. That favors MNF getting some better matchups and by ESPN going after Aikman, and evidently Michaels, they show they're serious about being in the game against the nets.

In the last few years, they've gone from Tessitore, McFarland and Witten to Levy, Griese and Riddick and the NFL looks at that as backups. The NFL is all about star power.

For some unknown reason, Aikman is not liked by some fans here and all he's done is strive to be an objective professional but by adding him to MNF, ESPN will make a statement that they believe that can still be a force in the game. They are the reason Romo got that deal at CBS because they were coming with a truckload of money.

I think part of this is about the money but FOX really pissed off Aikman not fighting for the DAL-SF playoff game knowing the history of those matchups to his career. Those SF games are better known than the SB's Aikman won and was the MVP in. For Aikman to actually mention that during the game he was doing told me he was beyond pissed about it. He took that personally and I would have done the same. He should have done that game.

 

[Motorola]

And it’s still a premier slot

'conner01' - a premier slot that - due to scheduling non-compelling = stinko matchups (for quite a while now = two decades) has long sunked into "must not watch TV".

Exhibit A: Conference Championship Teams from 2020 season - Buccaneers, Chiefs, Packers appeared only once each on MNF in 2021....Bills were on twice.
TB & KC were both home games; their opponent- the Giants(!).
GB hosted DET.
Exhibit B: Meanwhile - both the Bears and Raiders had two games on MNF in 2021 - and both of LV's games were in the first four weeks - September 13th and October 4th.

 

[conner01]

'conner01' - a premier slot that - due to scheduling non-compelling = stinko matchups (for quite a while now = two decades) has long sunked into "must not watch TV".

Exhibit A: Conference Championship Teams from 2020 season - Buccaneers, Chiefs, Packers appeared only once each on MNF in 2021....Bills were on twice.
TB & KC were both home games; their opponent- the Giants(!).
GB hosted DET.
Exhibit B: Meanwhile - both the Bears and Raiders had two games on MNF in 2021 - and both of LV's games were in the first four weeks - September 13th and October 4th.

The schedule is based on the same thing the strength of schedule ranking people put out
What happened the year before
And we all know what happened last year means very little
I agree they need better game
But 2021 they avg the highest viewership in a decade with over 14 mil per game
Ratings is what drives advertising rates and thus drives the cost of TV contract
So yes, it’s still a premier game because it still has very high ratings

 

[nightrain]

Considering the source (Yahoo), take it with a grain of salt, but the scuttlebutt is 5 years, $90M and ESPN working on bringing Buck along with him.