Troy Aikman explains how he managed his back pain as a player.Surgery only helped him for a few years.His back problems pushed him towards retirement.
Back in May 1993, when Troy Aikman injured his back at the Dallas Cowboys training facility, the issue didn’t appear grave. But within a month, the situation turned serious enough to require surgery to remove a herniated disc fragment. And then, just weeks later, the 26-year-old was back on his feet, gearing up for the season opener as if nothing had happened. Doctors called it “a miracle,” but what looked like a triumph at the time slowly revealed a darker truth. The injury began to worsen with each passing year after 1996.
By the time 2000 rolled around, the pain in Aikman’s back was unbearable. He turned to injections just to manage it, pushing through week after week. But at one point during the 2000 season, the pain was so bad that he couldn’t even bend over to take a snap. That forced the Cowboys to turn to Randall Cunningham to start a game in Philadelphia. Years have passed since then, but the story didn’t end on the field. Now, nearing 60, Aikman has spoken about the back pain that never truly left him.
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“I still manage that [back issue],” Aikman said during his appearance on the Rodeo Time podcast from earlier this month. “I had back surgery right after our first Super Bowl. So, when I retired, I had a lower left facet joint that just deteriorated, and I was taking injections my last year to try to get on the field. And I still have to manage it. It’s a little better. I still deal with it, but surgery can’t help that.”
When Aikman first hurt his back while lifting weights in 1993, the doctors didn’t immediately view the injury as alarming. According to his surgeon, Dr. Watkins, such issues often develop gradually rather than from a single moment in the weight room, so Aikman was not advised to get his surgery done sooner. In fact, he didn’t show any nerve damage, weakness, or numbness in his legs, which are classic red flags a physician looks for.
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Interestingly, Aikman’s injury resembled one suffered by QB Joe Montana in 1986 while he was still playing for the San Francisco 49ers. However, the procedure the former underwent was slightly different from Montana’s. After Aikman underwent surgery, Dr. Watkins explained that he removed a fragment of the damaged disc, which was roughly one inch by half an inch, from between Aikman’s fifth lumbar vertebra and first sacral vertebra. While the surgery went smoothly, Aikman sounded confident at the time that the back issues were behind him.
“I’m feeling fine,” Aikman said in a statement released by his team in June 1993. “It’s a relief to have the surgery completed and to know that I’m not going to have any more problems with my back.”
Unfortunately, Aikman’s back was never the same again after that surgery. While it helped Aikman return to the field, it didn’t eliminate the long-term consequences. During his playing career, the three-time Super Bowl champion rarely spoke publicly about pain, no matter how much his body endured. But now, decades later, Aikman is far more open about what living with chronic back pain actually feels like.
“So, I’m just kind of stuck with it,” Aikman said on the Rodeo Time podcast. “And I do hot yoga. I just did it this morning, and it seems that I’ve gotten into it now for about two and a half years. It seems to have helped give me a little bit more movement and help with some of the back pain.”
Today, Aikman continues to focus on nutrition, mobility, and daily wellness routines. Still, the retired Cowboys QB often marvels at how long some modern players manage to extend their careers compared to his own.
Did back issues force Troy Aikman to retire early?
After the 2000 season, Troy Aikman retired at just 34 years old. Over his 12-year NFL career, Aikman suffered 10 documented concussions, including a frightening one ahead of Super Bowl XXVIII. Because of that history, many people assumed head injuries forced the Cowboys QB into retirement. But according to Aikman, that assumption is far from reality.
“Going into my last year, I was having some back issues,” Troy Aikman said in an interview back in 2013. “I took epidural shots. The first time I took them was before the Jacksonville game that season in 2000, and I remember on the day of the game, waking up, and I’d never felt better for a game in my life. My back felt pain-free for the first time in years.
“And in the first quarter, we completely turned Tony Brackens loose, and he slammed me on the turf right flat on my back, and immediately, my back went into spasms. I was done for the day. So that good feeling lasted about half of a quarter. And I took shots the following week, hoping that I could recapture the pain-free symptoms, and it never took again. So, that is why I retired.”
Ultimately, doctors had assured Aikman that stepping away from the constant physical punishment of football would allow his body to recover fully. And avoiding those hits should have prevented Aikman’s back problems from worsening. But more than two decades later, back pain still remains a part of Aikman’s daily life.
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