ESPN Hopes To Team Buck, Aikman

Joe Buck, Troy Aikman

Joe Buck is expected to leave Fox Sports for ESPN, where he will become the voice of “Monday Night Football,” The NY Post reports. 

Buck, 52, has called the World Series for nearly a quarter century and was Fox’s play-by-player on six Super Bowls. 

On Friday, Fox granted Buck permission to speak with ESPN, according to sources. A deal is expected to come to fruition shortly. 

With Fox, Buck had one year and near $10 million remaining on his contract. Fox, though, is letting him out early as a gesture for his years of service to the company. He is expected to sign a contract in the five-year, $60-$75 million range with ESPN, according to sources. 

Fox tried to keep Buck with an offer of $12 million per year. 

At ESPN, Buck will join his longtime partner Troy Aikman in the MNF booth. The Post previously reported that Aikman agreed to a five-year, $92.5 million contract, according to sources. 

At ESPN, Buck, besides calling “Monday Night Football,” is expected to be involved in producing ESPN+ projects, as well. In exchange for letting Buck out of his contract a year early, Fox will receive the ability to choose one Big Ten football game earlier next season, according to a source. The two networks share the rights to the Big Ten and there is a drafting system that is utilized to pick games. The two sides began talks late Thursday night. 

Over the past year, ESPN chairman, Jimmy Pitaro, a diehard Yankees fan, has been on a George Steinbrenner-like shopping spree to glamorize the once-vaunted MNF booth. 

With Buck moving to ESPN, it blocked Al Michaels from possibly joining Aikman there. ESPN planned to consider Michaels if it were unable to lure Buck. ESPN favored Buck over Michaels for this type of outlay as it wanted to have its Super Bowl team for 2027 in place.

Michaels, 77, has been on the one-yard line with Amazon about being the voice of its “Thursday Night Football” coverage. He had wanted to know who his partner would be. Amazon has agreed to a contract with ESPN’s college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, according to sources. Herbstreit will remain on ESPN’s College GameDay and as its lead game analyst. 

Michaels is a free agent because NBC decided to replace him with Mike Tirico as its lead Sunday Night Football play-by-player. Michaels called the Super Bowl for NBC last month.

Meanwhile, Kirk Herbstreit has officially agreed to a deal with Amazon to be its game analyst when it begins its exclusive coverage of “Thursday Night Football,” according to The NY Post citing sources. 

Herbstreit will continue with ESPN, where he will be on College GameDay and be the network’s No. 1 game analyst for college football.