Troy Aikman was exasperated — and honest.
“I don’t like the call at all,” Aikman said.
Aikman, ESPN’s lead analyst for “Monday Night Football,” was reacting to a penalty during the most recent game broadcast. With the Buffalo Bills up 20-17 over the New York Jets and 9:32 left in the third quarter, Buffalo linebacker A.J. Epenesa was called for a roughing the passer penalty on Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a call even Rodgers described one day later as “a little ridiculous.”
After the on-field explanation of the call, Russell Yurk, a former NFL vice president of instant replay and administration and now ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” rules analyst, chimed in with the following: “Troy, the reason why they called it in this situation is because he does land with most or all of his body weight. It looks like he does try to get one hand to the side, but obviously the referee felt that he didn’t make enough of an attempt to brace it.”
Said Aikman, even more exasperated: “I got it. I don’t like it.”
On and on the flags came last Monday, the teams combining for 22 penalties for 204 yards. With 2:47 left in the final quarter, Aikman had enough. He spoke for much of the audience: “It’s like a preseason game,” Aikman said.
Watching Aikman on Monday — he and play-by-play announcer Joe Buck have been sensational this season — he didn’t sugarcoat talking about the officials. Aikman praised lead official Adrian Hill’s crew when they correctly identified penalties. He provided criticism when he thought they missed something. He was unfiltered, he pulled no punches, and he kept the implicit agreement a sports television analyst is supposed to have with the audience: Be faithful to what you see.
Which brings us to Tom Brady.
On Tuesday, NFL team owners voted unanimously to grant Brady part ownership of the Las Vegas Raiders. Brady and Tom Wagner, the co-founder of Knighthead Capital Management, are believed to have purchased approximately 10 percent of the Raiders.
If Brady was merely a Hall of Famer-to-be extending his connection with the NFL through ownership, it would be a story but not one with implications for those watching the product. Brady, as the sports world knows, debuted in September as Fox’s No. 1 NFL analyst this season alongside play-by-play voice Kevin Burkhardt. Fox has the broadcast rights to the Super Bowl this year, which means Brady will call the league’s most important game. He is six games into a 10-year, $375 million deal with Fox Corp.