Michael Irvin spent three Super Bowl runs alongside Troy Aikman, watched him become one of the most respected and well-connected analysts in the sport, and has now spent the better part of 2026 watching his old quarterback’s expertise and relationships go to work for the Miami Dolphins instead of the franchise where he cemented his legacy.
Aikman has spent the better part of 2026 working as a consultant for the Dolphins, helping the franchise hire new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley before continuing in an advisory capacity through the draft. Aikman has maintained his role as ESPN’s lead Monday Night Football analyst, which has raised questions about a conflict of interest since he himself acknowledged that the Dolphins hired him specifically because he has “information that they don’t have or can’t get” from his weekly access to coaches and players around the league.
“It does pain me to see that,” Irvin said during a recent appearance on the DLLS Cowboys podcast. “I mean, I think it’s criminal for any club not to try to just glean as much as you can from a guy like Troy Aikman.”
The Cowboys, for their part, have never tried to glean any of it. Aikman confirmed as much earlier this year, telling The Musers The Ticket in Dallas that Jerry Jones has never reached out to him for his opinion during any Dallas personnel search, even though he acknowledged the Dolphins hired him specifically because years of calling games for ESPN and Fox gave him access to information that no front office could obtain on its own. As Shannon Sharpe explained on Nightcap in January, Jones has always operated as the uncontested patriarch of the Cowboys organization, and introducing someone of Aikman’s stature into that hierarchy risks fracturing the singular narrative Jones has spent 35 years constructing around himself.
“Troy wanted a John Elway situation here in Dallas,” Irvin said. “And I know he wanted it, and certainly he’s earned it. But it’s not going to happen.”
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.