One of Fox’s biggest broadcasting wins started as a gamble. When John Madden and Pat Summerall left in 2002, the network took a chance on Joe Buck, a young play-by-play voice, and Troy Aikman, a recently retired quarterback. On paper, it could have blown up in Fox’s face. Instead, it turned into two decades as the voices of the NFL’s biggest games, a run so successful that ESPN brought the pair to Monday Night Football in 2022.

Now, with contract talks hanging over their future, cracks are starting to show in a partnership that once seemed unbreakable. 

“On Monday night, before the Rams took on the Bills at SoFi Stadium, the site of this season’s Super Bowl, Buck ‘broke the ice’ on this unspoken tension, and he and Aikman had an argument, a source said. It ultimately de-escalated, and the two had a broadcast in which viewers never would have been able to decipher that something was amiss,” Front Office Sports’ Ryan Glasspiegel reported Wednesday. ESPN declined to comment.

For one of the NFL’s longest-running broadcast duos, reports of a rift aren’t encouraging. Buck and Aikman share a relationship beyond the booth, and from vacations to rounds of golf, they have been nearly inseparable. The likely source of the tension is how differently their futures at ESPN currently look.

ESPN will broadcast the Super Bowl for the first time in its history, with Buck and Aikman on the call. As things stand, though, that game could be the last they broadcast together.

Buck agreed to a reported six-year, $108 million extension in September. The deal keeps him as ESPN’s lead play-by-play announcer for Monday Night Football and puts him on the call for the network’s next Super Bowl in 2031. Aikman, meanwhile, is in the final season of his five-year, $90 million contract, which expires after Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027.

So far, there’s no clarity about where he will end up. ESPN hasn’t made an official statement, and it may not do so until after the Super Bowl.

“With this historic season for ESPN now underway, our entire focus is on bringing fans the best possible football coverage, culminating with our first Super Bowl. To that end, we won’t be addressing talent contract specifics publicly before the Super Bowl,” ESPN executive vice president of communications Josh Krulewitz said.

Aikman has already spoken publicly about the lack of progress. During an appearance on Sports Media with Richard Deitsch, the Hall of Fame quarterback said he had expected the matter to be settled before the season began.

“I thought something would be done prior to the start of this season,” Aikman said in September. “I’ve never gone into a last year of a contract ever since I signed with the Dallas Cowboys. So, I thought that it would be done. It’s not. When it might get done, if it gets done, is anybody’s guess, and it’s just not something that I’m really putting a lot of energy into.”

The last time Aikman was in a similar situation, he left Fox for ESPN in 2022. Back then, he sounded more hopeful about staying put.

“I’ve really enjoyed my time with Fox, and I’m hopeful that continues,” Aikman said at the time. “I’ve loved working with Joe [Buck]. We’re at a bit of an impasse, and how that shakes out, I honestly don’t know.”

Aikman signed with ESPN first, and Buck followed a few weeks later after Fox released him from the final year of his contract. This time, the situation has flipped.

And despite his frustration, Aikman has not ruled out staying with ESPN, leaving the next move to the network.

Buck, with his extension locked in, is hoping his longtime partner stays beside him in the booth. On Unfiltered with Ricky Bo and Bill Colarulo on Philadelphia’s 97.5 The Fanatic, he said he hoped Aikman and ESPN could work out a deal.

“I legitimately love the guy like a brother,” Buck said, reflecting on their 25 years together. “We’re basically the same age; I’m 57, he’s 59. We’ve both been through divorce. We’re both girl dads. Twenty-five years, you’re sharing a lot of life together. Forget games and in the booth and all that stuff.

“I’m obviously hopeful, to say the least, that something gets done. But that’s kind of his world, and ESPN’s world, and I’ve got to kind of mind my own yard in that stuff. I think that’s the best way to be.”

That leaves ESPN with a decision to make after building its Monday Night Football coverage around the duo. Aikman remains one of the network’s central NFL voices, and losing him would mean finding a new analyst to work alongside Buck after more than two decades of shared experience.

Other names could enter the conversation if Aikman and ESPN fail to reach a deal. Greg Olsen is approaching free agency, while Sean McVay has been mentioned as a potential broadcasting target if he ever leaves coaching. Pat McAfee has also been drawn into speculation about the booth, though he recently denied that any discussions had taken place about replacing Aikman.

For now, none of those possibilities means Aikman is leaving. The immediate issue is that ESPN has secured Buck for the long term while Aikman’s future remains unresolved.

The reported argument was settled before kickoff, and their broadcast proceeded normally. But with the Super Bowl approaching and Aikman’s contract nearing its end, the network’s next move could determine whether one of football’s most familiar announcing duos stays together.