FOX face losing battle to keep booth star tipped to replace angry Troy Aikman in MNF soap opera

All signs point to Troy Aikman and ESPN heading for a divorce. Amid reports that there was growing tension between the Dallas Cowboys icon and his Monday Night Football booth partner of 25 years, Joe Buck, Aikman spoke out not just once, but twice. This friction between the pair reportedly stemmed from the fact that Buck had penned a lucrative six-year, $108 million extension with the network last month, whilst ESPN was letting Aikman’s contract run down. On Thursday, the three-time Super Bowl champion spoke out, and didn’t do much to dispel any rumors of a rift between he and Buck. “There’s probably a time and a place for all that. I don’t know if now is the time,” he said on KTCK The Ticket. “I don’t know if it’s hard to figure out kind of what happened. “I’ll broadcast through this season and I’ll be a free agent at the end of the year and kind of see what happens. “I’m looking forward to whatever the rest of this season does hold and the Super Bowl and all that and where my next landing spot may be.” Later that afternoon, Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina spoke with Aikman, and it was there that he doubled-down on his previous comments. “ It just seems to be where they’re going — that they’re gonna go in a different direction because there’s been no talks, no contract negotiations,” Aikman told Traina. “We’re in a Super Bowl year. The Super Bowl is Feb. 14. My contract ends in March. It just doesn’t seem logical that if they were gonna keep me, something wouldn’t be in place before that.” As for how Aikman will treat the rest of the 2026 NFL season, it’s business as usual. “The rest of the season will be fine. Excited about it. Looking forward to it. It’s awesome that we got the Super Bowl. Not a problem at all,” he said. ESPN have a successor in mind With the 59-year-old feeling as though he has been pushed aside in favor of the future, ESPN could already be targeting his successor. According to John Ourand of Puck, the ‘Worldwide Leader’ are reportedly pursuing Greg Olsen, who is currently in the final year of his contract at FOX . “My best sources are predicting that Greg Olsen will wind up in ESPN’s Monday Night Football both next season,” Ourand reported on Thursday night. for Puck . “Olsen’s current contract with Fox ends this season, and while he has had some negotiations over a renewal, nothing is signed. “Olsen, who lost the top analyst job to Tom Brady in 2024 , has made it clear that he wants to be a number one analyst. And right now, it looks like ESPN’s seat will be open.” However, it may not be that easy for ESPN to lure him away, with Fox having already engaged in some discussions with Olsen over his future at the network, “Spoke to Fox Sports management: They said early in the offseason they spoke with Greg Olsen’s representative where they laid out what the parameters of a new contract would be,” NFL insider Richard Dietsch reported on Thursday night. “So from the Fox Sports perspective, they say they’ve had some conversations about a contract.” Deitsch further stated that Fox Sports president Brad Zager had said, “We want Greg here for a long time. We are ready to pick up those conversations whenever they are ready.” For the in-demand Olsen, though, with a potential spot opening up in ESPN’s No. 1 booth for MNF, it may be an opportunity that is too good to pass over. Join talkSPORT’s dedicated US Sports YouTube channel The S* Word every Tuesday and Thursday for our brand new NFL shows. On Tuesdays, Will Gavin and US senior reporter Brian T. Smith will debate the biggest talking points from the NFL weekend, while on Thursdays Efe Obada joins the crew to talk to players past and present and break down what to look for across the league .