If it weren\u2019t already clear the magnitude of conflict present when an NFL team hires a top broadcaster, lead ESPN NFL analyst Troy Aikman just spelled it out as clear as day.<\/p>\n
Longtime Dallas Cowboys writer Clarence Hill Jr. recently interviewed Aikman on the\u00a0DLLS Dallas Cowboys Podcast<\/a> and asked the former Cowboys quarterback about whether he felt conflicted serving as a consultant for the Miami Dolphins rather than the team he spent his entire career playing for. Aikman\u2019s answer was clarifying, not so much on the Cowboys versus Dolphins dilemma, but as to why a team would be interested in hiring him as a consultant in the first place.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI think the Dolphins were wise in understanding my relationships around the league and knowing that I have information that they don\u2019t have or can\u2019t get. And I think they were smart in taking advantage of that, whether it was through me or through somebody else. The Cowboys have never elected to do that, at least with me. You know, maybe they have with others,\u201d Aikman said.<\/p>\n This is precisely the conflict that many are worried about when it comes to broadcasters like Aikman working directly for a team. The information Aikman gathers throughout the normal course of his broadcasting job is incredibly valuable for a team to have access to. Every week, Aikman travels from facility to facility speaking with coaches and players about personnel, strategy, upcoming games, and any other number of sensitive topics. Now, Aikman is readily admitting this information is why the Dolphins want him on the payroll.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the same reason why many have issues<\/a> with Fox\u2019s lead NFL analyst Tom Brady owning a minority stake in the Las Vegas Raiders. And at first, the NFL agreed; the league restricted Brady\u2019s access<\/a> to team facilities and production meetings in an effort to ensure he wouldn\u2019t gain a competitive advantage through his broadcasting job. Those restrictions were relaxed last season<\/a>, and have seemingly given other broadcasters, like Aikman, a green light to work directly with teams.<\/p>\n Not only are there clear competitive integrity issues at play here, but the knowledge that Aikman works for the Dolphins could negatively impact his ESPN broadcasts. The other 31 teams in the league now know Aikman is communicating information back to the Miami Dolphins front office, so now they\u2019re incentivized to not divulge any sensitive information, or worse, mislead Aikman by giving him false information that he relays back to the Dolphins. Either possibility gives Aikman a skewed sense of reality, which can negatively impact the quality of the broadcast.<\/p>\n Similarly, Aikman\u2019s relationship with the Dolphins could lead to accusations of favoritism. And he\u2019s not putting in much effort to hide it.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I will say I\u2019m pulling for the Dolphins, because now I have something at stake,\u201d Aikman told Hill. \u201cAnd I think they hired two really talented, wonderful people, and I think that\u2019s gonna prove itself out. \u2026But, yeah, I\u2019m pulling for them. I want to see them do well because I feel like my fingerprints are on it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n At the risk of sounding alarmist, this is a slippery slope the NFL finds itself on. There\u2019s no reason all 32 teams shouldn\u2019t hire a broadcaster to gain access to valuable inside information now. That scenario would create a race to the bottom, where teams become inherently distrusting of broadcasters, and information they relay to the audience could no longer be seen as trustworthy. It would be significantly detrimental to the NFL\u2019s television product.<\/p>\n Fans are already distrustful of announcers. And until those announcers started working directly for teams, those feelings were generally bogus. But now, there\u2019s legitimate reason to think someone like Aikman or Brady would play favorites. And unless the NFL begins cracking down on this clear conflict, both for reasons of competitive integrity and product quality, we\u2019ll likely see the intermingling of broadcasters and teams become more common.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If it weren\u2019t already clear the magnitude of conflict present when an NFL team hires a top broadcaster,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[30791,257,217,7,216,251,2087,6,1369,16154],"class_list":{"0":"post-855555","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-clarence-hill-jr","9":"tag-dallas-cowboys","10":"tag-dolphins","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-miami","13":"tag-miami-dolphins","14":"tag-miamidolphins","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-tom-brady","17":"tag-troy-aikman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116353609636196635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}