One broadcaster, two jobs
Troy Aikman will work the 2026 season under the same league restrictions the NFL wrote for Tom Brady, a consequence of the advisory role he took on with the Miami Dolphins in January.
Front Office Sports reported the arrangement on Friday after obtaining a written statement from NFL chief spokesperson Brian McCarthy. The league had already spent two seasons testing the model on Brady, who calls games for Fox while holding a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders.
“There have been no issues with Tom over the last two seasons,” McCarthy said. “It is up to the coaches and clubs what they share with him. If they share information they shouldn’t, then that’s on them. The same parameters that pertained to Tom last season will continue this year and also will apply to Troy.”
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What the restrictions cover
McCarthy laid out the terms. Both men may sit in on production meetings virtually. Neither gets access to practice facilities or practice sessions. Interviews with football personnel and players have to happen outside team facilities, which in practice means a team hotel, in a room separated from the rest of the staff. Both are allowed to broadcast games involving their own club.
The logic behind all of it is competitive information. Broadcast crews normally spend the week before a game inside a facility, watching practice and talking to coaches. A commentator who also has a stake in a rival front office collects a week of that access every seven days. The league built the fence around Brady to reduce the chance, or the appearance of a chance, that any of it travels back to Las Vegas.
Where it leaves Aikman
The clause about broadcasting your own club is moot for Aikman this season. Miami has no Monday night fixture in 2026, the year the franchise begins its rebuild after Tua Tagovailoa. Aikman calls “Monday Night Football” for ESPN alongside Joe Buck.
Aikman, 59, joined the Dolphins in January to help them hire a general manager and says he holds no official title with the club. He won three Super Bowls at quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys and has worked beside Buck in a booth since 2002, a partnership now in its 25th year. The pair moved to ESPN for Monday nights in 2022 and are scheduled to call Super Bowl LXI in February, the first time ESPN carries the game.
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