Monday Night Football has tinkered with its booth for years, and on Friday, Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported that ESPN will have a new 1-2 punch on its weekly NFL broadcast. The catch: Instead of giving the spot to folks who have never called NFL games before, the Worldwide Leader went out and poached Fox’s top pairing.
After it had previously been reported that Troy Aikman would spurn Amazon’s Thursday Night Football telecasts to call games for ESPN, Marchand brings word that Joe Buck will leave Fox to reunite with Aikman in the booth.
On Friday, Fox granted Buck permission to talk with ESPN, according to sources. A deal is expected to come to fruition shortly.
With Fox, Buck had one-year at $11 million remaining on his contract. Fox, though, is letting him out early as a good gesture for his years of service to the company. He is expected to sign a contract in the five-year, $60-$75 million range with ESPN, according to sources.
Rumors of Buck’s potential switch to ESPN have circulated for a few weeks. It’s a gigantic move even beyond Buck’s calling of NFL games — he’s been the voice of Fox’s World Series broadcasts for years and has worn a number of other hats for the network. Marchand reports that beyond Monday Night Football games, Buck will have a hand in producing ESPN+ content.
