Tom Brady blazed the trail. Troy Aikman is now walking the same path.
Brady wears a pair of conflicting hats, covering the entire league as an employee at Fox while owning a piece of the Raiders. Aikman’s short-term stint as a consultant for Miami’s G.M. and head-coaching hires (both of which they may have nailed) has morphed into an ongoing role that has yet to be fully defined.
The apples-to-apples Brady comparison is unmistakable. An analyst who calls games involving all teams has a financial interest as to one of them.
“I will say I’m pulling for the Dolphins . . . because now I have something at stake, and I think they hired two really talented, wonderful people, and I think that’s gonna prove itself out,” Aikman recently told Clarence E. Hill Jr. of DLLS Sports. “But, yeah, I’m pulling for them. I want to see them do well because I feel like my fingerprints are on it as well.”
For Brady, the NFL’s current cure for his incurable conflict of interest is to ban him from entering team facilities or attending practices. (In 2024, the restrictions included not participating in pregame production meetings.) As to Aikman, the league previously has said it will address the situation “at the appropriate time.”
In response to Aikman’s latest comments, the NFL has declined comment.
“I think the Dolphins were wise in understanding my relationships around the league,” Aikman told Hill. “And knowing that I have information that they don’t have or can’t get. And I think they were smart in taking advantage of that — whether it was through me or through somebody else.”
Aikman is right. If the NFL will allow broadcasters to leverage the things they learn while gaining unique access to teams, players, and coaches (particularly while strolling around the field during pregame warmups), every team should hire a broadcaster.
The question becomes how those situations will be handled. Beyond any limits the league may place on Aikman’s access, how will ESPN address this? Will there be a disclaimer before all games? Before the games featuring one or more teams from the AFC East or otherwise on Miami’s schedule?
And what will happen the next time Aikman and Joe Buck call a Dolphins game? Will the connection be mentioned once, with a perfunctory box-checking by Buck? Will it be repeated throughout the broadcast?
That hasn’t been an issue for Fox, because Brady has yet to get a Raiders game. The Dolphins could end up on Monday Night Football in 2026. (Last year, despite not making the playoffs in 2024, they played on Monday night twice.) Other teams in their division (specifically, the Bills and Patriots) surely will be given one or more MNF games.
It’s absolutely an issue, because the NFL has allowed it to become one. There should be a clear rule in situations like this — if a broadcaster has an opportunity to work for a team, the broadcaster must pick one job or the other.
Of course, part of the attraction to Aikman came from the fact that he has “information that [the Dolphins] don’t have or can’t get.” The moment he turns in his headset, that information will become less robust.
But if the NFL is going to allow double-dipping, every team should grab a scoop and start targeting folks who can help them find out things they don’t know and can’t learn. Every game analyst becomes fair game. The play-by-play announcers are in play, too. Ditto for the sideline reporters, who are roaming around the nooks and crannies of the bench area, eyes and ears at all times open.
It never should have gotten to the point that two of the most prominent analysts have direct relationships with specific teams. Now that the cat is out of the bag, it would be foolish for the other teams to not try to hire someone in the broadcasting ecosystem who has “information they don’t have or can’t get.”
Read the full article here