Every word Troy Aikman says from the Monday Night Football booth is being weighed a little more carefully these days. As the final year of his ESPN deal shows signs of turbulence, along with an apparent rift with Joe Buck, it doesn’t take much to put Aikman in the spotlight. And it wasn’t any different this Monday either. When Aikman showed up in the broadcast booth, there was just one problem. Instead of sounding like a broadcaster, he sounded like he was still taking the field as a Cowboy.

With 13:34 left in the second quarter, the Eagles offense was staring at third-and-7 from the Dallas 9. Quarterback Tanner McKee’s short throw to M. Brown fell incomplete, but Cowboys defender L. Overton was flagged for roughing the passer, an illegal hit on the quarterback.

Watching the moment, Aikman commented, “I know that’s a broken record when you have these penalties.”

Clearly, Aikman wasn’t happy about the call. But the penalty itself made plenty of sense. The roughing-the-passer rules say, “Players in a passing posture are considered to be a player in a defenseless posture. Any physical acts against a player who is in a passing posture (i.e. before, during, or after a pass) which, in the game official’s judgment, are unwarranted by the circumstances of the play will be called as fouls. When in doubt about a roughness call or a potentially dangerous tactic against the passer, the game official should call roughing the passer.”

Essentially, if the passer has already thrown, showing force against him, including taking him to the ground or using your own helmet to make contact with his head, neck, chest, or knees, gets a penalty called.

And that’s exactly what happened on the field. Overton took McKee down, holding his facemask. The flag cost Dallas 4 yards instead of the usual 15, since a penalty can only cover half the distance to the goal line. The incomplete pass was wiped off the board (“No Play”), and the offense got an automatic first down, which kept the drive alive near the end zone.

That was the moment that really set fans off. One user, who posted the clip, couldn’t believe Aikman was against the penalty, writing, “Troy Aikman acting shocked that this was called roughing the passer makes me happy ESPN hasn’t extended his contract.”

Another added, “Tanner’s facemask gets grabbed. Troy Aikman: ‘I don’t see anything there.’” They were joined by another fan who referred to the incident. “Are Troy Aikman and the rules guy rage baiting right now? You can think the rule s**ks, but he obviously grabbed McKee’s facemask lmao.”

And we can see why they were angry. Not only did Overton grab onto McKee’s facemask after the pass was thrown, but he also took McKee to the ground. Although there have been plenty of debates about the league going overboard with roughing-the-passer calls, a penalty on this occasion made sense. What didn’t make sense was a Super Bowl-winning QB not recognizing it. But fans had their own ideas about why Aikman wasn’t convinced.

The fact that Aikman, a former Dallas QB, was in the booth for a game against the team’s biggest rival wasn’t lost on them. “How can a defender pulling down on a QB’s facemask be controversial? Only if it’s a #Cowboy’s defender and Troy Aikman is announcing the game? #MNF,” one fan wrote.

And that wasn’t all. One fan went beyond Aikman’s personal preference for the Cowboys and suggested he shouldn’t have been allowed in the booth for this game. “Why the hell is Troy Aikman allowed to commentate on Cowboys games? His bias is obnoxiously horrible.”

After all, in his rookie season, Aikman experienced the full weight of this rivalry during the Bounty Bowl in 1989, when Eagles defenders went after the Cowboys’ kicker. In 1991, Aikman played against an Eagles defense that was leading the league, and he recalled years later that it was then he realized “Philadelphia was the worst place to play.”

All of these criticisms land right as Aikman’s contract with ESPN as lead analyst for MNF looks like it’s coming to an end. And the former QB seems worried about it truly being his final year of broadcasting, as he explained last week.

“As I’m into my last year at ESPN, I’m realizing that this is something that could very well be taken away from me. For the first time, I’m realizing how much I really do – I’ve always enjoyed it. I’ve always known that. But until you risk having something taken away from you, I think sometimes you tend to maybe take things for granted. And so, for the first time probably in my career, I’m realizing, you know, this is a great profession. It’s been a great ride for me, and I hope it’s not over.”

In any case, whether it was Aikman’s personal bias for the Cowboys or his experiences against the Eagles that shaped his reaction, he will be in the broadcast booth for another Monday night game for Dallas later this season, when the Cowboys take on the Seahawks.