Troy Aikman’s life and the Super Bowl’s legacy intersect again.
Born in West Covina less than two months before the first NFC-AFC Championship game happened down the freeway at the L.A. Coliseum, Aikman spent his first 12 years in Cerritos “riding my bike everywhere … I could see the parachute jump from Knott’s Berry Farm. It was great.”
Then his family picked up and parachuted into Henryetta, Oklahoma with a population of about 6,400.
“And we’re seven miles out of town, dirt roads, on a working cattle ranch … I wasn’t riding my bike anywhere,” he said. “But that experience was a real blessing for me. A lot of who I became and the things that really shaped me, things I carry with me today, were grounded in Henryetta. My best friend is the same one since I was 12 and first moved there. I wouldn’t trade that experience at all.”
Allow for some moments of reflection this week as the former UCLA quarterback, three-time Super Bowl champion with the Dallas Cowboys and Pro Football Hall of Famer reaches his latest yard marker.
In the Fox booth with Joe Buck working on his fifth Super Bowl telecast, the continuation of an accidental broadcasting career, Aikman doesn’t dirty himself up wondering whether the road that’s brought him here was or wasn’t paved.
Q: No hidden figures here — the Super Bowl has its 50th anniversary, you’ve just turned 50 (last Nov. 21). Any sort of mid-life crisis hit you yet?
A: (Laughing) I don’t think it’s caused me to completely re-evaluate where I am, because in a lot of ways I went through that exercise at a young age. Without boring you with a lot of details, my grandfather passed away when I was 10 and for some reason, when I was at his funeral, that really made an impact. I’ve tried to live my life with the realization that you have to appreciate every moment that comes along. I was able to do that as a player and certainly was able to do that when we played in those Super Bowl games, and I’ve continued that with my three daughters as they’ve grown up. Fifty was another reminder of being present.
Q: Doing a little math, you’ve had 16 years of college and pro football — your four years at Oklahoma and UCLA, then 12 years in the NFL. As a Fox broadcaster since 2001, that’s also some 16 seasons. It’s almost 25 years after your first Super Bowl win. Some broadcasters like Pat Summerall or John Madden reach a certain point in their career arch where a generation of viewers don’t really relate to them so much as a former player or coach, but only as a broadcaster. Do you come up against that at all nowadays?
A: Yeah, that’s a good question. I certainly find that with my daughter’s friends and families. They know I played, but I think it’s kind of like when I was growing up watching “Monday Night Football” and listening to Don Meredith or Frank Gifford. I never saw Meredith play a down for the Dallas Cowboys or Gifford for the Giants, but I knew they played, and yet I only experienced them as broadcasters. I don’t think I’m in a position yet where people just don’t realize that I played, but certainly there are kids who say, ‘I’m a huge fan of yours’ and they’re talking about me as a player, but they never saw me play. I find that kind of peculiar.
I think one of the enjoyable things for me moving into broadcasting is that I have been able to … I’m not sure if ‘relevant’ is the right word for it, but I’ve been able to keep up with today’s game and the players and establish relationships with them, be engaged in a game I still love.
Q: There are still many kids, and probably adults, who only know of a John Madden as a video-game guy, or a broadcaster. If you were ever to get into the video-game business, maybe that’s the trick to erase any former trace of you as a player.
A: That’s right. What’s funny about that is most every boy in America knows about ‘Madden Football’ but I don’t know how many of them even realize what ‘Madden’ means. John’s a dear friend of mine and we were in San Francisco and I told my girls we’re going to have lunch with John Madden. They had heard me talk about him, but they never connected the dots. I asked them, ‘Do the boys in your classes play Madden football games?’ They said, ‘Oh yeah, they love it.’ I had to tell them: ‘This is why it’s called Madden. You’re going to have a lunch with the John Madden.
Q: I think the series launched in the late 1980s. Were you a Madden Football player?
A: I never played, but I’ll tell you what happened. When I moved to Dallas as a rookie (just drafted out of UCLA), I bought a big-screen TV at an apartment — never had one that big — and I bought a Nintendo console, because that was the thing to have at the time. I got hooked like everyone does, as a 22-year-old, but at the end of the year, I threw it away, got rid of it, and never played a video game since. It was just a time-waster for me. I had better things to do than playing Super Mario Brothers and worrying whether I got to level six. And now I may be the only man on the planet who never played Madden Football. I say it reluctantly since John would not like to hear that.
Q: And you never made the cover?
A: Yeah, so maybe that’s why I never played it.
Q: But then you avoided any jinx that came with it.
A: That’s OK. I would have liked to see if the jinx worked. Jinx or no jinx, I think everyone wanted to be on that cover.
Q: What’s satisfying about broadcasting nowadays that you didn’t know would present itself?
A: I didn’t anticipate I’d still be doing it. I kind of thought I’d drop in then and figure out where I wanted to go. But it’s been such a great job that’s afforded me time at home to raise my girls that I otherwise might not have gotten. What have I learned that maybe I didn’t know before? Maybe it’s just how great a job it is and how it remains fun. I’m fortunate I get to work with people I really like – a producer with me all 16 years, Joe Buck with me 15 of the 16, and a lot on the crew have been with us 10 years or more. I don’t think that’s really the norm. Joe and I are close friends, we do things away from broadcasting — golfing and vacations, road trips, and that’s unique. I’m just thankful to be in the position I’m in.
Q: When you were in L.A. last September to do the Rams’ opener at the Coliseum, you spent that morning at the Fox studios near Century City on the NFL pregame set. Is a studio job something you’d consider appealing if something ever opened up?
A: At some point in my career I would like to try more studio work. One of the reasons I’d enjoy it is knowing that Jimmy (Johnson) and Terry (Bradshaw) and Howie (Long) and (Michael) Strahan and Curt (Menefee) are all really good friends and I think the world of all of them. The chemistry for me on the show that day was good. That’s why I had had so much fun. Having said that, yeah, that’s something down the road I’d like to try. I’m not sure if the opportunity will ever present itself but …
Q: It’s not like any of those guys are getting any younger.
A: They’re not getting any prettier either. And it’s not to suggest I don’t like doing games, but I’ve heard from some who’ve gone from games to studio that they miss the electricity at a stadium during a live event. I know on game day, showing up to the stadium, doing a big game — and Sunday’s game won’t be any bigger — it’s a great feeling in the best way it can, it replicates a lot of what I experienced as a player. I don’t know if you necessarily get that from a studio.
Q: True, but if you had a studio role, you’d probably never have to face a situation where 27,000 Green Bay Packers fans are signing a petition to have Fox ban you from calling the NFC divisional playoff game against the Cowboys. All that “negative input” you have about their team.
A: But then I’d miss that fun. You want that, right? To be in the middle of the storm. It’s all good. That stuff, in all honesty, none of that affected me one way or another. I don’t think twice about it. The Cowboys fans think I’m too hard on the Cowboys, everyone else thinks I hate their teams because I played for Dallas. Hey, it comes with the job and it’s inconsequential.
More Q&A with Aikman about his prep work on a Super Bowl based on experience at www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth.
BY THE ROMAN NUMERALS
Troy Aikman’s Super Bowl broadcasts for Fox prior to New England-Atlanta Super Bowl LI in Houston:
• XLVII in 2014 in East Rutherford, N.J.: Seattle 43, Denver 8
• XLV in 2011 in Arlington, Texas.: Green Bay 31, Pittsburgh 25
• XLII in 2008 in Glendale, Ariz.: New York Giants 17, New England 14
• XXXIX in 2005 in Jacksonville, Fla.: New England 24, Philadelphia 21
Aikman’s Super Bowl appearances as a player:
• XXVII in 1993 at the Rose Bowl: Dallas 52, Buffalo 17
• XXVIII in 1994 at Atlanta: Dallas 30, Buffalo 13
• XXX in 1996 at Tempe, Ariz.: Dallas 27, Pittsburgh 17
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