Cover Story – Troy Aikman
Troy Aikman is a Dallas icon. He led the Cowboys to three Super Bowl wins in the 90s, including winning the MVP in Super Bowl XXVII. Since his Hall of Fame playing career, Aikman has become a lot of things. He is a girl dad. He has been in the broadcast booth with FOX and now ESPN alongside Joe Buck, a partnership that has now become the longest running in NFL history. He is also an entrepreneur, having dipped his time, money and effort into many business endeavors over the years. Now, as he prepares to turn 58, he is off and running with his newest venture, Eight Elite Light Lager.
Troy sat down with AVIDGOLFER Magazine Editor Eli Jordan and discussed his love of football, his lengthy broadcasting career, his new beer and whether he has anything left he wants to cross off his bucket list.
AVIDGOLFER: You’re almost 25 years removed from your NFL career now. Is this what you would’ve envisioned from your post-playing days?
Troy Aikman: It has been more than I ever could have imagined. If you had asked me back in 1997 what I was going to do post-football, I wouldn’t have had an answer for you. In 1998 I went over and did a game with NFL Europe with Brad Sham, and then FOX reached out to me and told me they had a job for me when I retired. That was the first time I even considered it as an option.
AG: Did you think you would be in the booth for this long?
TA: Even when I got into it, I really thought I would probably only do it for a couple years and then move on to something else. I always envisioned being part of a front office with an NFL team. Personal circumstances didn’t afford me the opportunity to pursue that. I was raising two girls and didn’t have the time, so I stuck with broadcasting. Now, 25 years later, having been able to work with Joe Buck all these years, it has been beyond my wildest imagination.
AG: You mention Joe. You two are now the longest broadcast partnership in the history of the NFL. What would you say makes the two of you work so well together?
TA: There is a lot that goes into that kind of longevity with a partner. There are a lot of other great broadcasting teams in the history of the NFL. For Joe and I, we are approximately the same age, so that helps. We were fortunate enough to be with the same network up until a couple years ago, and we were able to transition to another network together, which doesn’t happen often. But, most importantly, we are genuinely great friends, and I think that comes across in our broadcasts. I think that level of comfort and what we have been through together makes us a great team.
AG: You strike me as a perfectionist. Do you still consider yourself an evolving broadcaster? Do you still take a lot of feedback and listen to your work to see what you can tweak and work on?
TA: Yes. All of that. It doesn’t change. You would think after years doing something it would become easier, but, for me, my preparation for a game hasn’t gotten more difficult, but it is definitely more time-consuming. I am doing more preparing for a broadcast than I ever have. Everyone does it a little differently, and there is no right or wrong way to do it. But, for me, in order to get comfortable to call a game, it now requires more time.
AG: Do you feel that is also a byproduct of being almost 25 years removed from your playing days? As the playbooks change and the NFL changes, does that make it more difficult?
TA: I think the reason it is more time-consuming is there is more information out there, and the viewers are more educated than they have ever been. One of the things that it important to me as a broadcaster is when I call that game, I know as much as the fan that has been following that team for the majority of the season. I think the fans that follow these teams are hardcore, and it’s important for me to provide that service for those fans.
AG: As the NFL and their broadcasts continue to evolve with more ways to consume, whether it be traditional broadcasts or now streaming options, is there a tipping point where it becomes too much?
TA: I don’t know when that might be. I think with all industries there is a tipping point, but I don’t feel we’ve reached that with the NFL. The fans are really thirsty for NFL football. The NFL has done a tremendous job of marketing the league. Just look at what they have done with the combine or the NFL Draft when they started traveling outside of New York. It’s something what the NFL has done.
AG: Larry Allen, who was a teammate of yours, just passed. Can you give me your best Larry Allen story?
TA: I think the one story that comes to mind is the 1994 NFC Championship game at Candlestick. He was basically playing on one leg. He was having a tough day, which was one of the only tough days he had in his career. He shouldn’t have been on the field that day, but he battled, and I came away thinking so much of him. Not a lot of guys would have played that day. I had no idea he would go on to have the career he did and be the player he was. He was a real professional and a great family man. He was committed and devoted to his craft, and a real sweetheart of a guy until it came to game time.
AG: Let’s talk a little about your newest endeavor, your Eight Elite beer. How did this opportunity come up?
TA: I met both my co-founders through a mutual friend. One of them spent his career in the beer business. I also spent some time around beer when I was younger, too. I worked for a distributing company outside Tulsa when I was in college before I transferred to UCLA. When I came to Dallas, I became friends with Barry and Lana Andrews, who own Andrews Distributing, and Mike and Natalie McGwire, who are also involved with Andrews. I have also done some national beer campaigns, as well, so when the idea got brought up, I was interested.
AG: Are you a beer drinker?
TA: I am a light beer drinker and felt that doing it for the sake of doing it wasn’t really attractive to me. But I felt if we could do it differently than anything else on the market and make a better-for-you beer, then that would be something I would be interested in. I think some of the brands that are out there are tired and it’s time for something new, and that’s the premise we started with.
AG: It took a couple years to come up with the recipe. Is that correct?
TA: We partnered with Oregon State up in Corvallis. They have a great beer program in their food and science department, and it took a couple years to develop the formula. But I am really proud of it and I think we achieved what I hoped we would with a better-for-you light beer that is made right, and it has been really well received.
AG: Obviously, you have been a huge part of promoting the product, and you have even been out to a lot of bars doing pouring and letting the public sample the product. How are your bartending skills coming along?
TA: I’m licensed to pour in both Texas and Oklahoma. I have hit a number of bars in Texas doing as much as I can to make people aware of it. We launched in Oklahoma in March, and we had a tremendous first year here in Texas, and we continue to grow. I am really optimistic about where we are.
AG: I am assuming there are some similarities between playing sports and building a brand when it comes to teamwork?
TA: Sure. There are a lot of parallels between business and sports. I continue to strengthen my team, and the people matter. That is one of the biggest takeaways from my years in business, is that you have to have a great team no matter what it is. My success, whether it be in football, broadcasting or in business, has really always been about being surrounded by good, talented people. It’s no different with this endeavor.
AG: You have accomplished so much in your life. Is there anything on Troy Aikman’s bucket list that you have yet to do?
TA: Not so much. I am asked a lot if I would want to be a General Manager. I think at my age now, I think that has passed me by. A few years ago, when my youngest graduated, I think that would have been the time to do it. But I was enjoying my broadcasting career as much as I ever had, and I didn’t want to give that up. Not to imply that simply saying I wanted to be a GM would lead to a job, but I think as my life continues on, I think I will always wonder if I would have been successful at it. When I ultimately retire from broadcasting, I want to do more traveling of the world, and that’s something I have gotten into the last five years or so, and I look forward to doing more of it.
AG: Okay. I grew up watching you play and thought I knew a good bit of Troy Aikman trivia. But on your Wikipedia page it says you won a state title in typing. Is that correct?
TA: That is a story that has certainly grown from what actually happened. I did win a typing contest, but it was a regional deal. Maybe four or five counties. I am asked about it a lot, and I usually just kind of roll with it. Another great urban legend comes from my baseball days. There was a Walmart behind the left field fence, and there is a story that I once hit a homerun over the Walmart, which would have been about a 1,200-foot homerun. With the typing, my sister was supposed to go to this typing contest, she was actually the best in the class. But she wanted me to go, and I thought I did pretty good. Not good enough to win, but I won. And believe it or not, it has actually been a big help as computers have become more a part of our lives.
AG: Thanks for the time, Troy. We’ll be watching this year.
TA: You bet.