Troy Aikman vs. ESPN; Nantz talks Romo; Al Michaels' future; and more

Let's just start right off the bat with Wednesday's news.

That came from Ryan Glass-Pegel at Front Office Sports, that Buck and Aikman had some sort of disagreement off the air prior to the Bills-Rams game Monday night.

This reporting has been corroborated, kind of corroborated, by Troy Aikman, who basically, when asked about it, by 96.7 The Ticket on Thursday, did not deny it, and then immediately went into his statement about being a free agent.

At the end of the year, Armand, at this point, we know Troy Aikman has a reputation for talking about his contract in public for negotiating through the media for, I mean, it's a fascinating thing because if Troy was still playing, they'd be calling him a diva right now, would they not? And he has a reputation for this stuff.

It's pretty obvious at this point, this relationship seems to be heading toward being beyond repair.

Yep.

And gosh, this is so interesting.

I feel like Nadia's theme should be playing behind us here.

Song to the Young and the Restless.

Oh, I didn't know the name of it.

That's the name of it.

Yes, indeed.

It's fascinating to me that we have gotten to this point.

It is possible.

So I kind of have to play psychiatrist a little bit here, which I don't like to do.

But we're trying to get into Aikman's head a little bit.

It's possible that he feels betrayed by Buck because reportedly, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, Buck went ahead and signed a six-year deal to stay with ESPN, but Aikman does not have a contract in place.

That's possible.

That could have been part of the reason for the reported disagreement from Monday night.

But I want to talk about Aikman, and I think it's worth discussing because Troy, as you said, has now become, this is a trend now.

because he did something similar at Fox, kind of going out there, talking about his contract.

Typically, broadcasters keep this stuff under wraps.

And the fact that Aikman has been so willing to share all of his frustrations, it's a red flag, not just to ESPN right now, but to potential future employers.

And let's face it, here's the thing.

There's an old lady I know who used to say, your bell is not the only bell that's ringing.