Joe Buck and Troy Aikman Weigh In on Tom Brady Replacing Them at Fox

After spending more than two decades together in the broadcast booth at Fox Sports, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman have made the leap to ESPN and will call Monday Night Football during the upcoming NFL season.

While he won’t be replacing them this season (unless he surprisingly retires for a second time), Tom Brady has already been signed to take over as Fox’s lead NFL analyst once his playing career is done and will eventually fill the top booth that Aikman and Buck once occupied.

Speaking on a conference call on behalf of ESPN, Aikman and Buck were asked about the free-agency frenzy amongst NFL broadcasters they were just a part of and Brady serving as their successor at Fox.

According to Buck, it all comes down to “supply and demand” and having “a known quantity” like the pairing of himself and Aikman.

“Somebody said to me the other day, we as fans need a sports person to tell us where all these sports announcers are ending up,” he said. “It’s been kind of crazy. It’s been exciting on this end of the business. As far as Brady, would anybody ever bet against the guy being great at anything? He’s kind of cornered the market in that. I think it’ll be a steep learning curve, and I’m sure he’ll be fantastic. I tend to root for everybody right on down the line. I genuinely feel happy for him.”

Aikman, who also played quarterback in the NFL at a high level for a long time and won multiple Super Bowls as a player, expressed similar sentiments about Brady. “I have nothing but respect for Tom. Tom has won at everything he’s done in life, and there’s no reason to think that he won’t win at this, as well,” he said. “The reason I believe that he’s going to be good is that he’s going to work. He’s a guy, as we know, he’s the reason why he’s been playing as long as he has. There’s a reason why he’s won seven Super Bowls and it’s because he doesn’t take any shortcuts and he’s not going to in broadcasting.”

Until Brady is ready to head from the locker room to the broadcast booth, Fox will deploy a top tandem of Greg Olsen and Kevin Burkhardt as their lead NFL team. Fox has also added Super Bowl XLIV-winning coach Sean Payton to their team and it’s believed that he’ll join the Fox NFL Sunday crew in the studio on off days for Jimmy Johnson. Payton, who could make a return to coaching at some point, had been in the running for a position with Amazon, the new exclusive home of Thursday Night Football.