After 21 years as the network’s lead NFL analyst, Troy Aikman’s departure from FOX caught the sports world off guard. Sure, he spoke about why he was leaving, but he never really opened up about what it actually felt like to work at FOX, and how different things are at ESPN. Until now, that is. 

“ESPN is a conglomerate. It’s like the U.S. government,” Aikman said while talking to Richard Deitsch on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast. “​​It’s like the U.S. government. There are people on top of people, and there’s so much content, and everything that goes into that, I can’t even imagine. So, ESPN is far more corporate than what I experienced at Fox Sports.

At Fox, it was really more of a mom-and-pop operation because of David Hill and Ed Gorin. They were boots on the ground from day one, and they were the decision-makers, and whenever talent, or anyone for that matter, had an issue or a question, or a suggestion. You went directly to David Hill or Ed Gorin, and then, after they stepped down, then you had Eric Shanks and Brad Zager, and they became those people.”

After retiring from his Hall of Fame playing career, he joined Fox Sports in 2001 as a color commentator on NFC telecasts, and after just one season was elevated to the network’s lead broadcast team alongside Joe Buck. It’s a pairing that would last two decades and include six Super Bowl assignments. But when contract talks began in 2021, the history didn’t translate well. 

The deal that FOX initially offered him was reportedly significantly below what he and believed was “fair market value.” Then, ​​rather than engage in extended negotiation, FOX made one proposal and stuck to it, leaving Aikman feeling that they were unwilling to entertain a genuine back-and-forth about his worth, especially given how the economics for top NFL analysts were evolving. 

Because of that, the Dallas Cowboys legend asked for an opt-out clause, a contractual provision allowing him to leave after six months if another opportunity materialized, which FOX agreed to. That opt-out was not unusual in high-value broadcasting contracts, and it gave Aikman a way to test the market without burning bridges. But when the opt-out period arrived, what happened next surprised him: FOX never made a follow-up counteroffer or engaged in further negotiation. They simply held their original position and did not return to the table.

“The reason that I’m no longer at Fox is mostly due to a lack of communication,” Aikman said on The Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast back in 2022. “Which is ironic since we’re in the communications business. But, that’s the way that it is.” But the communications breakdown extended beyond offers.

According to Aikman, he didn’t speak to FOX Sports president and executive producer Eric Shanks about the situation until after the ESPN deal was finalized, and that first conversation was not a negotiation or an attempt at retention. It was simply a congratulatory call on his new contract. Aikman said he asked Shanks to explain what had transpired and why negotiations had gone the way they did, but Shanks declined to answer those questions. Aikman found that lack of open reflection disappointing, especially after more than two decades of service. 

Aikman’s move to ESPN in March 2022 came with a very significant financial upgrade. Multiple credible reports place his ESPN contract at around $90 million over five years, roughly $18 million per season, making him one of the highest-paid analysts in sports broadcasting. Back then, it was also more than what 97% of active NFL players used to make annually.

Before that, although exact figures from FOX are not publicly disclosed, industry estimates and reporting suggested that Aikman’s annual FOX compensation was well below that figure. Many were baffled at the fact that FOX could pay Skip Bayless (a hiring that Aikman was against) $5 million a year to get 100,000 viewers, but not pay a lead NFL analyst $15-18 million.

Even with the financial upside, Aikman has repeatedly emphasized that his initial priority was to stay at FOX if the relationship could be sustained at a level that reflected his value and experience. He expected that when other networks began circling, including ESPN, and with Amazon reshaping how Thursday Night Football rights would work, FOX might reassess and correct its position. When that didn’t happen, it signaled to him that the network had made a strategic choice about its future direction that didn’t include him at the center of its football coverage. He has also said that he still doesn’t fully understand why FOX didn’t pursue him more aggressively. 

As Aikman’s comments have drawn attention to FOX’s internal structure and communication gaps, other longtime personalities who used to work at the network have also begun offering their own perspectives on what it was like to work there.

After Troy Aikman, other NFL analysts reveal their own experiences at FOX

While Aikman’s remarks struck many as unusually candid for a broadcaster leaving a major network, Joe Buck took a noticeably more diplomatic approach.

Reflecting on the negotiations, he said: “They have their reasons and they have their business that they’re running, and Troy had an out and he had a chance to go out on the market and see what he [could] get. I think all along, his No. 1 choice was to go back to Fox, and that’s what I was hoping for and that didn’t materialize.” Despite the emotional weight of leaving a 27-year run at the network, Buck emphasized that everything “ended really well at FOX on a personal level… FOX was very gracious letting me out.”

Terry Bradshaw’s experience revealed a different side of the same company. Even as one of the original pillars of FOX NFL Sunday, a role he has held since 1994, Bradshaw described a level of oversight that bordered on intrusive. 

“Can you believe this, FOX? They listen to absolutely everything I say on the radio and everything I put in print,” Bradshaw said, appearing on the Morning Mayhem podcast on December 9. He recounted how executives had recently warned him: “You’ve got to stay away from this… You’ve got to stay away from that.”

That irritation didn’t develop out of nowhere. As Front Office Sports has reported, FOX has been “reluctant” to let several top on-air NFL voices, such as Tom Brady and Kevin Burkhardt, take on outside assignments. Yet the network made an exception for Drew Brees, allowing him to call Netflix’s Christmas Day games. For Bradshaw and Michael Strahan, who were denied similar opportunities, the inconsistency only heightened the feeling that long-tenured personalities were being constrained rather than supported.

Take everything together, and Aikman’s exit further highlights how FOX’s communication gaps and management choices pushed even a 20-year veteran to look elsewhere. His move to ESPN shows that structure, respect, and clear negotiation matter as much as on-field expertise in the NFL broadcast world.