Could Troy Aikman leave job at ESPN? | Free4All+

Mike Ducey, Sam, is off tonight. Often during the week, here at 7 o'clock, you can see us on Channel 27, which we now call Fox 4+. Thursday nights, we show high school football on 27. So you're seeing us on the Fox local app, perhaps accessing us in some other digital platform. And we thank you for joining us tonight. Again, we're on every night at 7, every weeknight at 7, and every weeknight at 10.30 on Fox 4 on Free For All. And then Sunday nights at 10 on Fox 4, there will be a quiz. Coming up later on this busy show tonight, Sean Bass from The Ticket joins us. He has a big benefit coming up, a charity event for an issue very close to his heart. We'll talk about that a little bit. Talk some sports with Sean, of course, as well as Cowboys and other things. Cowboys at Lambeau Sunday. Jeff checks in from the star here in just a second. Carter Freeman from our digital staff here at Fox 4 loves talking college football, and he will be in studio momentarily to do just that. There's a possibility of a 24-team playoff that seems more realistic than ever. We'll have some thoughts on that. Plus, Carter's take on OU Texas, as he will call it now. His beloved Sooners got the win. Carter wasn't at the game, but he was in a place where he could really enjoy the outcome. We'll have that for you. Also, Troy Aikman appears ready to leave ABC slash ESPN on the Monday night booth. Aikman's comments on the ticket this morning getting all sorts of play we'll hear those and I'll have some thoughts on Aikman's situation again Cowboys at Lambeau Sunday night today we hear from defensive coordinator Christian Parker and Fox 4's Jeff Kolb joins us from the star Jeff this hiring of Mike Pettin was a save the day move by the franchise Parker said I don't have to respond to that we know why the timing was now Pettin is coming out of retirement to take on this role as a senior defensive assistant on Christian's staff. But Parker says he has been courting Mike to join his team ever since he was hired here as the defensive coordinator. Now, we still have not seen Pettin either on the field or anywhere at the facility so far, two days into his tenure. His relationship with Parker goes back to 2019. Pettin was the defensive coordinator in Green Bay. He hired Parker to his staff, and they have been in close contact ever since. Now, on the radio Tuesday Jerry Jones said that Parker would be moving from the sidelines on game days up to the booth to coach the defense now but today at his press conference Parker contradicted that saying he will most likely be staying down on the field where Pettin will be on game day still not finalized five games into his first coordinator job though there's no question Parker's defense is one of the worst in football right now dead last against the run the only team without an interception and one of three that has only forced two total turnovers. But Christian says the issues are fixable. They're fixable because they're under our control. Very fixable. Sometimes what happens, you get into a season and you're so worried about the opponent. You got to worry about yourself and what you're doing internally. It's been a lot of self-inflicted wounds these first five games by us, things that are fully under our control. You know, my parents raised me to, you know, you don't duck from anything. You know, you stand in there and you do what you got to do until the job is done. And so, you know, things are going to happen. You kind of insulate yourself from the noise, lock yourself in office, and get to work. Green Bay has dominated the last dozen games with Dallas, beating the Cowboys 10 times, losing just once, to go along with last year's infamous 40-40 tie at Jerry World. In that tie, Dak Prescott was tremendous, one of his best performances in his career, really, throwing three touchdowns despite CeeDee Lamb missing the game with an injury, and while going up against ex-teammate Micah Parsons for the first time. This Sunday night, though, Dak will not get another chance to beat Parsons as he is still recovering from a torn ACL. Is there a part of you that would have liked to have faced Micah this week? Yeah, I mean, absolutely. You know, you play this game and you wanted to play in the NFL as a kid to play against the best, and that's what this league is about and that's what everybody wants, and so that's what makes it fun. And obviously, you know, wishing him all the best and getting healthy. Yeah, at the end of the day, this is the Cowboys versus the Packers. This isn't me versus Mike or the Cowboys versus Micah, and so it's about us going in and getting the win. Sunday night we will get to see two of the top five passing attacks in football right now under the lights. The Packers rank fourth, the Cowboys fifth in passing yards so far this season. Really the difference, though, is that Dak and the Dallas offense have to contend with a top five passing defense for Green Bay while Jordan Love gets an opportunity against this Dallas defense that is 21st in yardage defending the pass and that, again, has not intercepted a single pass so far here in 2026. Now, if Dak and company are victorious Sunday night, the Cowboys would secure just their third win ever in a game played at Lambeau Field. At the Star in Frisco, I'm Jeff Kolb, Fox 4 Sports. All right, it's great to welcome in from the ticket Sean Bass from the Sweet Spot, weekdays from 1 to 3. his flinging disc fundraiser for Mothers Against Drunk Driving coming up October 25th in Richardson at Breckenridge Park. Did I use the correct title, by the way? Technically, it's what? You can say it on TV. It's the Gillespie's Irish Tavern and Kitchen Flinging Disc 2026. But it is a disc golf tournament, and all the proceeds go to Mothers Against Drunk Driving North Texas. It's really a unique way, I think, to raise funds for a great cause. Give us some background on the event, if you would. I mean, sadly, back in 2012, I lost my girlfriend, Heather Van Hooser. We were hit by a drunk driver who was three times the legal limit. And it was horrible because she was an only child and she was my girlfriend. And the pain is still felt today because her parents are still broken up about it. And when you go through a traumatic event like that, you don't know who to turn to. You're sort of floating out in space. But the people in Mothers Against Drunk Driving have these victim advocates that help you not only from a legal standpoint they go to every court hearing they try to you know keep you in the loop they go with you to the district attorney's office they're there every step of the way but they're also there from an emotional side be it counseling be it meeting other victims and families that are going through a living hell in in the wake of a tragedy and these people do this on a shoestring budget and they charge nothing this is just a service they provide out of the goodness of their hearts and i just wanted to do something to pay them back for all the great work they did for me because if i didn't have the people in MADD in the wake of that incident i don't know where i would be and honestly what i the money we raise is never going to be enough but i just hope that not only can we help these people that are continuing to help victims and families but also raise awareness that we live in 2026 there's uber there's lyft there's taxis there's public transit in some cases and impaired or drunk driving should never happen in this day and age and i understand we live in an area where people love their cars they love their trucks they love to be on the road but when you've had too much you know you can really impact somebody negatively and that will last a lifetime so just anybody that hears this message just please don't drink and drive great message there and uh this event will be a lot of fun on October 25th and as Sean mentioned for just an incredible cause I think i've heard you say that the actual uh field is is full but you can still help contribute to the cause right absolutely just go to the ticket.com we sold out the field about a week ago and it uh it's great that we've done this a few years now and it's starting to fill up quicker and quicker as the sport of disc golf grows in the area we've got a lot of great courses including Breckenridge where we're going to play but if you want to go to the ticket.com and donate some money 100% of everything goes to Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Victim Services Department. Literally four women who serve the whole North Texas area, and they are doing thankless work. And we just want to do our best to try to make them operate a little easier. All right, theticket.com to contribute. And we thank the guy who bought the dinner with Sam and me. Yes. We auctioned off a dinner. Yeah, Scott's going to go to dinner with us. Way to go. They're going to see the venerable Griffin Studios. And whenever we move into the new place, we'll have a tour. Yeah, exciting. my managers don't know that yet but you know it now okay there we go uh let's talk a little less sports here the cowboys and packers sunday night big news of the week of course the defensive coaching changes Mike Patton coming in as an advisor of sorts for Christian Parker I guess my my thought is it it can't hurt it surprised me that they did it because usually the cowboys don't admit anything this early in a season and this is clearly an admission that Christian Parker needs some big time help. He's in over his head. I think the third and 21 call, uh, that that's, that's proof the end of the Ravens game in Rio That's proof. I find it interesting that you had other coaches like Wink Martindale and Rex Ryan say, Hey, Jerry, give me a call. I'll help out. I can help fix some of these problems. And then after the, uh, the Tampa loss to an undrafted rookie and the third and 21 happens, uh, Mike Patton gets hired, which I understand there's a relationship previously with Christian Parker and Brian Schottenheimer I think it will help I still think it smacks of desperation and I feel bad for Christian Parker because I think he has a bright future and maybe he wasn't ready for this gig yet so hopefully uh this defense with a healthy Joey Porter Jr. and maybe the pass rush will do something maybe it'll turn turn out to be an okay defense as the season wears on but it's this is a desperate move I don't know if Parker's a good coordinator or not or if he will be but you know i look at the at this defense and you have guys who look like they can't tackle that that's that's a basic skill that's required to be a professional football player on defense and i don't know how that could possibly be a coach's fault at this point of a guy's career no and it's weird because they overturned so many names on the defense because we all pointed the finger at Matt Eberflus last year and i mean maybe he was part of the problem but you had a bunch of guys who couldn't play at any level and now you're running into the same problems i know they've tried to fix that in free agency and making a trade and i do think Joey Porter Jr will definitely help the secondary and when some of these guys get healthier it's going to be a little bit better in pass coverage but when you can't pressure the quarterback on a consistent basis or get home i don't care what scheme you're running it's there's going to be flaws you know it's interesting that that Brian Schottenheimer found himself in a situation this week where he had to contradict something that Jerry Jones has said and Sam and i talked about it on the show last night every Cowboys head coach goes through this but it's a perfect illustration isn't it again of how being head coach of the Dallas Cowboys is just different than being coach anywhere else and it's so unique like Garrett was part of the family so he knew what what the landscape was like but McCarthy gets brought in and he was probably blindsided by things Jerry said before he was asked about it from the media and now Brian Schottenheimer is getting a crash course in that because earlier this week Jerry says Christian Parker's heading up to the booth and then of course they have to walk it back because they haven't made that decision today Christian Parker says no no i'm gonna be down on the field so it's uh it's never a dull moment in Jerryville you're a baseball guy Diamond Talk on the ticket during Rangers season i worry about the the sport that i grew up loving more than any other sport because i don't see household names in major league baseball right now i think the sport's lucky to have Ohtani the incredibly unique talent that he is in spite of his recent struggles I guess Aaron Judge is somewhat of a household name in a sporting sense Mike Trout was the best player in baseball for 10 years and he could walk into this building right now and down the hall and nobody would turn their head that that you know that's not the be-all end-all I guess that's not the ultimate goal of the sport to have guys who are recognizable but it's got to be part of it why do you think it is that way I think it's a marketing problem for Major League Baseball Rob Manfred has made some strides and made a lot of these owners a lot of money over his tenure as commissioner but and I think has improved the game with some of the rules changes shortening the game totally agree with that but for the past however many years we've been griping that Ken Griffey Jr and Derek Jeter are still getting big national commercials where like somebody like Mike Trout was I think in a Subway commercial once or twice I don't maybe I don't quite remember you know there's Ronald Acuna Jr who's fabulous that I don't know if he walked in here anybody would know who he is so you're right from that aspect yes however the sport is healthy from a attendance standpoint I feel like now that Sunday night baseball is on national TV instead of cable that's helping a little bit and the overall talent and product is really good with the changes the pitch clock um things like that it's it's a more watchable digestible sport i think the sport itself is in a good place from a revenue standpoint it's just a matter of will the owners try to play some hardball with the union this winter because we're going to have work stoppage and it's going to get messy real quick on the rangers before we let you go how worried are you about your little red-shoed rangers at this point i mean i don't worry about them i'm just disappointed and sad because they couldn't follow up the world series with a playoff appearance which i guess in hindsight it does look like they caught lightning in a bottle i didn't want that to be the case i didn't want that to be the tag on them historically but it is what it is i think they should probably do their best to move a salary or two this winter but again when there's a lockout there's not going to be any business done so you just hope that they can have some internal improvement i know a lot of people are down on the farm system but there were some strides made at the the AA ball double A level this year so maybe some of these kids in a few years like Sebastian Walcott i'm a big fan of Dylan Dryling i think he's going to be a terrific outfielder one day but if ray davis is not willing to spend money in a top five market i just i don't know i don't know what to say to that because the most valuable thing in sports is right across the parking lot with the Dallas Cowboys, and I don't want to hear my owner pleading poverty. The fourth largest media market. You've got to act like it. Sean Bass from the sweet spot on the ticket, the Flipping D Tournament, coming up October 25th, benefiting Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. Go to theticket.com to get involved. Great having you in, Sean. Thanks, Mike. All right. All right, also tonight, Hall of Famer Troy Aikman making news for his comments on the ticket this morning. It was reported earlier this week that Aikman had a heated conversation in the Monday Night Football booth with his broadcast partner, Joe Buck, an off-air conversation, the subject being contracts. Buck has a big-money extension with ABC slash ESPN. Aikman does not. Troy working on the last season of his current deal. And with the Musers this morning, Aikman did nothing to quiet the speculation that he could well be moving on at season's end. You've been in the headlines the last couple of days, so we thought we would start here. you and joe have been just an incredible broadcast team for 25 years and uh it's been made public that joe has a new deal with espn and you don't and there's been some uh stories the last couple of days that that's now causing tension between you two we just wanted to get your perspective on this and are these reports true and what's going on well i think there's a there's probably a time and a place for all that to be discussed i don't know if now's the time uh i don't know that it's hard to figure out kind of what's happened but you know i'll i'll broadcast through this season and and i'll be a free agent at the end of the year and kind of see what happens but uh i'm looking forward to whatever the rest of this year does hold and with the super bowl and all that and uh where my next landing spot might be all right um i'm biased here i like Troy Aikman. I've known him for a long time. He's been very good to me through the years, but I don't get this. Aikman and Buck have worked together for 25 seasons. It's the longest broadcast partnership on NFL Network television, if you will. Fox all those years now, Monday Night Football. And is Monday Night Football ready to move on from Aikman? Is it strictly a money deal? Is there somebody else they have in mind to replace him? Because if it's money, I don't know. I can't speak to that. If it's anything else, if it's wanting another analyst in there that you think can do a better job, then that's a mistake from the network, plain and simple. I just don't get that. Where's Troy going to end up? It wouldn't surprise me if he ended up with Jim Nance on CBS, to be honest. I don't know if J.J. Watt is the long-term future there. Maybe Troy's ready to move into an NFL front office. He has a relationship with the Miami team, as it is, so maybe that's in his future. But Troy will have options. I think ABC would make a mistake in letting him get away, that's for sure. Our poll question tonight has to do with your favorite NFL analyst on television. What a shock. Troy is in the early lead over Collinsworth, Brady, and the others. Go to foxsports.com/free-for-all. Scan the QR code. Carter Freeman's next with college football. Stay with us. Carter Freeman from our digital staff in for Thursday night chat about college football. All right. news comes out today that we're getting ever closer to a 24-team playoff expanding from 12. It's going to come down to ESPN wanting to get a deal done with the college football playoff and wanting it to be a 24-team playoff. Most of the reaction I've heard is negative. I know you hate this. I don't love it. I like it where it is now. I'll admit it. I like 12. But I don't hate 12. To me, it's going to mean more games that are potentially interesting. I'd rather have a playoff game than a bowl game that means absolutely nothing. It becomes one thing at the end of the season that you think will matter towards national championship implications. Yeah, it could potentially lead somewhere, even though, and again, we all speak from our own fan bases, and we were talking about this in the hallway earlier. My Iowa Hawkeyes are a perfect example of a program that could benefit from this, theoretically, because we would have a chance to get into a 24-team playoff, obviously, more easily than we would a 12-team. so I think fan bases like mine are fired up about this possibility. Why do you hate it? We don't have all the time in the world, but tell me. I just think it's frustrating because it does devalue the regular season in a way where you can lose four games and your season's not done. That's never been college football. That's the NFL, and I think there's always been a beauty of the regular season of college football is the most important regular season of any sport in the world, it seems like and this just takes away from that to the point where you can lose to all four of your rivals and then at the end of the season say oh well at least we met we were the 22 seed in the playoff that just doesn't seem to have the same zing as like you're not ending your season on a high that you can carry in the next season like you might have if you didn't make the CFP but oh you won the Orange Bowl or oh you won you know one of the other like New Year's Six bowls when it was like the four team playoff you don't really get momentum going into the next season it just It seems like you end your season on like a sour note of, oh, hey, we made the playoff. And coaches are still going to get fired when they make the playoff. Like, you're going to be the 24, 23. Well, it depends which programs you're talking about there. But, you know, I think, you know, OU Texas is still going to mean everything. Alabama, Auburn, Iowa State. You know, they're still going to mean a lot. And those games are still going to be played. If this means playing fewer of the ridiculous games early in a season, because there's more of a playoff late, then I'm all for that. Well, I wonder if this will encourage, sorry to interrupt you, But I wonder if this will encourage teams to actually play tougher out-of-conference games because losses don't matter as much anymore. Because that's a good early-season litmus test is SEC versus Big Ten. So you're coming around already. I like this. I don't know about that. I'm just speculating. Tell us where you were when your Oklahoma Sooners won that game at the Cotton Bowl last year. I was in Nashville, Tennessee at a friend's wedding. And this friend went to OU and decided to schedule his wedding on the day of OU Texas. we kind of ribbed him about that throughout the entire process and yet lo and behold I have been in many an interesting spot watching OU Texas in my life I never thought I would say I watched this game from a wedding where OU scoring one count them one offensive touchdown ended up beating not just Texas number one Texas something they had never done in this rivalry so yeah several states away I guess I wasn't a TE state I was in Tennessee not Texas watching this game but an absolutely crazy experience to watch that with a bunch of other OU grads as well something that none of us had any faith would happen going into that game and yet here we are we have video of this correct yeah so at the beginning of this at the beginning of this clip you can kind of hear uh the the groom in the background yelling boomer from the kitchen so his feed was a little ahead of ours well i think all the different phones there were at different speeds, but you can see the phone there, all of us celebrating. It was just, like I said, something I will never forget. And I told you I had a similar experience when I beat Michigan a few weeks ago. We were at a wedding reception in the state of Iowa. Quickly, let's roll through some of these games. Texas gets Florida now as they try to bounce back Saturday. And Florida has one of the one of, if not the worst secondaries in the SEC. This should be a good opportunity for Arch and that offense to kind of correct some of the passing issues they've had over the last couple weeks. Maybe it can be a get-right game for them, but Steve Sarkisian's kind of got to figure out this play calling thing. He's got to give the run game a little more love and he's not giving up play calling duties and oh, their special team still isn't good. While OU has to play a really good Kentucky team. A game I will be at. Yeah. That is a, that is a 15th ranked Kentucky team on the road in Norman. It's the first time they'll have played since they, since OU joined the SEC and yeah, Kentucky, Kentucky, you know, they, they're a bit of a gambling, gambling team, right? They've won two games in a row in overtime by one points because they've gone for two point conversions as opposed to kicking extra points and it's paid off for him just about out of time here should have left more time for you my friend i'm sorry about that we've got TCU Baylor got SMU Virginia there's a Big 10 guy ohio state indiana interests me a great deal that's going to be juicy as well 400 plus dollars to get into that game by the way at a minimum top five matchup and it involves indiana it's still hard for me to get used to all these years it is. Carter Freeman, thanks very much. Thanks for having me on, Mike. We'll wrap our show up in a minute. So we thought we would ask you who your favorite NFL TV analyst is. Troy leads in the early voting. Continue to vote tonight. We'll have the final results on Free For All on Fox 4 at 10.30. We'll see you then.