Troy's Broadcasting Career
Listen to the Troy Aikman Football Show, Thursdays at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time,
on Sporting News Radio, starting September 4th.

Cris Collinsworth, Joe Buck, and Troy Aikman are FOX's #1 NFL broadcast team.

Troy Aikman's broadcasting career began alongside his football career. From his rookie year until his final season, Troy had a weekly radio show during the football season with Cowboys announcer Brad Sham. Troy also had a television program in the mid 90s with veteran play-by-play man Pat Summerall. The show aired locally in the Dallas-Fort Worth area during the football season. Additionally, he had an 8:00 a.m. Monday morning show on KPLX 99.5 FM called "8 at 8" during football season.

TROY GOES TO EUROPE

In 1999, Troy tried his hand as a sports commentator covering NFL Europe games. FOX Sports had been recruiting him for the gig for three years. He finally agreed, but only if Brad Sham could be in the booth with him. He made his debut on May 29, 1999, providing color analysis along with the play-by-play announcing of Sham. The duo covered the game between the Frankfurt Galaxy and the Rhein Fire in Duesseldorf, Germany. A week later on June 5th, Troy and Brad broadcast a game between the Berlin Thunder and the Rhein Fire. The next day, Troy joined former Buffalo Bills linebacker Ray Bentley and former Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Bill Maas in the FOX broadcast booth as the Barcelona Dragons took on the Scottish Claymores in Spain. In his June 1, 1999 column, Dallas Morning News columnist Barry Horn quoted Troy as saying that before going to Europe, he had no aspirations of heading to the broadcast booth once his playing days were over. "Now, I probably would be more open to it than I was two weeks ago," Troy said.

FROM THE FIELD TO THE BOOTH

That opportunity game sooner than everyone imagined. On April 9, 2001, Troy announced his retirement from the National Football League. A week later, FOX announced that Troy would be teamed with his former teammate Daryl Johnston and with veteran announcer Dick Stockton to form FOX's #2 NFL broadcast team. Troy then headed back to Europe to join Brad Sham once again covering NFL Europe games.

Troy's debut covering NFL games for FOX was supposed to happen August 13, 2001, for the preseason game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Baltimore Ravens. However, the game was never played. Dangerous conditions with the turf at Veterans Stadium caused the League to cancel the game. Troy would have to wait ten more days. On August 23rd (the evening before Troy's wife and Daryl's wife were to give birth to daughters) the broadcast team was in Baltimore for the game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Carolina Panthers. Stockton gave his new partners good marks for their first outing.

Troy took to broadcasting football games like he took to playing in them - he was intelligent, accurate, and daring. Sports Illustrated named him TV's "Top Newcomer" for 2001. After the season was over, things started changing at FOX. John Madden left to go to ABC to broadcast "Monday Night Football," and his partner Pat Summerall was going to slow down the pace and broadcast Cowboys home games for FOX. This left the door open for a new #1 team. On May 2, 2002, FOX made it official - Troy, Cris Collinsworth, and Joe Buck were to be the FOX #1 NFL announcing team.

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This page was last modified on August 24, 2003.