December 1, 2021 • 46 mins
Host Andrea Kremer takes us back to 2001 when Steve Sabol interviewed recently retired Cowboys QB Troy Aikman. Having just given his retirement speech 2 months earlier, Troy looked back at how coaches like Norv Turner and Barry Switzer influenced his career but also cites his father as having the biggest impact on the toughness he played with. Troy remembers his fondest memories of his playing days including his first performance in the Super Bowl. Having played his entire career in Dallas, Troy gives his thoughts on having Jerry Jones as the team owner.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to another episode of NFL Films Tales from the Vault.
I'm your host, Andrea Kramer. When I started my TV
career at NFL Films as a producer, I had the
amazing opportunity to work for and learn from Steve Sable,
the true heart and soul of NFL Films. Among other things,
Steve was a creative genius, a brilliant cinematographer, and an
(00:28):
expert interviewer. This podcast showcases some of the greatest interviews
Steve ever did. They're raw, they're unedited, conversations, none of
which have ever been heard before in their entirety. For me,
the coolest part about this show is that it's like
a time capsule. It takes you back to a specific
moment in time for the people we're going to hear from.
(00:50):
And today we'll head to the Vault for Steve's two
thousand one interview with Troy Aikman. Yea, Nowadays, most people
(01:11):
know Troy Aikman for what he says on game day,
not for what he did on game day. After all,
it's hard to believe, but he's been an announcer on
Fox for nine years, longer than he played quarterback. For
the Cowboys. That's right. He played twelve seasons for Dallas
and is now in his twenty first season with Fox.
So when you're listening to this interview, I want you
(01:32):
to contemplate this. Tom Brady's playing career started in Aikman's
final season and is still going strong. Brady's in his
twenty second year. In fact, Brady has told me that
his brain and his body are still in sync, so
he believes he can play as long as he wants.
And that's really the difference in the game today versus
(01:53):
in the nineties. The quarterbacks in Troy's era, the Dan Marino's,
John Elway, Joe Montane, their careers rarely ended on their
own terms. In fact, for Aikman, ultimately it was his
body that gave out before his desire to play. This
conversation between Steve and Troy took place in June of two,
(02:15):
before Aikman ever called his first game, and before the
Hall of Fame. Beckoned Troy Aikman, MT Smith, Michael Irvin,
Jimmy Johnson, and Jerry Jones. I always like to set
the scene for you, So Steve and Troy are sitting outside.
In fact, you'll hear the birds there are Troy's home
in Santa Barbara, California. This is an opportunity for Aikman
(02:38):
to reflect on his entire career, just months after an
emotional press conference where he announced his retirement. And you
you watch, and you think that your time will never come,
and uh, so my time's come, and uh today I
(03:02):
announced my retirement from the National Football League and the
Dallas Cowboys, and uh it was twelve of the best
years of my life. Those emotions were coming from someone
who you kind of feel just wanted to keep playing
but physically couldn't. Now, Troy once told me the playing
(03:24):
quarterback was the toughest thing to do in all of
professional sports, and much of this classic interview delves into
the art of quarterbacking. Looking at your retirement day when
you retired, did you have some prepared remarks for that
when you were going to retire? You see, you must have.
But we were looking like that one like for an
(03:45):
hour or ye you surprised that the way you reacted
to that, You know it one. I knew that there
were a lot of people that that that needed to
be thanked and and that that was kind of my
opportunity to to thank so many people that have played
(04:06):
such a big part in my career. And there's so
many people, uh that that do so much for all
of us in our lives that uh people tend to
think is somewhat meaningless, but for those of us that
are in the middle of it, we realized that that's
not true. And so I I knew the people that
I wanted to mention. I had no idea that it
would go as long as it did. Uh you know,
(04:29):
I'm I'm I'm really a pretty emotional guy under the surface.
I I think that on on on the on the surface,
people would not see that. But I told my wife
on the way over there, I said, uh, you know,
this could really be a tough tough day for me
emotionally to to uh to say goodbye to one to
the game and then two to the people that have
(04:52):
meant so much to me for for the last twelve years.
And uh and as it turned out, it was, and
it and it was very early. I mean it hit
me as soon as as soon as I had to speak.
And uh, uh what was there something that memory or
some image that triggered the the emotion. I knew what
I think it was just the realization that it was
(05:13):
that it was coming to an end. And uh, you know,
seeing my teammates in the audience and and Michael Irvin
and EMMTT Smith and Darryl Johnston and Jay Novochek and
you know those guys, and then you immediately start having
flashbacks to all the all the special uh moments that
you've had and the big games and the celebrations and
the hugs and uh, you know, and I think that
(05:36):
that's the very thing that you miss when you're done playing.
You talk to anybody, it's it's yes, in some respects,
it is the game, but more than that, at least
for me, is the people and sharing in those moments.
And and as I tried to express during my press
commerce said, you know, the Cowboys is a very special
(05:57):
organization and they've got tremendous history. But it's not special
because they got a star on the helmet. And even
though for a lot of fans out there that's what
they identify with, Uh, it was special for me and
all of us because of the people behind the helmets
and the ones in the uniforms. And I played with
some great people and and uh, and when you say, boy,
(06:18):
you're not going to get a chance to go through
some of the the some of the best times of
your life professionally when you don't get to when you
know that that's ending. Uh, that's that's that's pretty emotional,
at least it is for me. In what area, Troy,
were you most critical of yourself? I mean when the
game was over and you would review how you play?
What area was the area that you always felt was
(06:40):
that you were most critical. Oh, you know, I would
go back, Uh this was good games, but this was
after every ball game, and I would replay every single pass, uh,
that that I threw, and I knew every incompletion. There
was every completion that I had. And where I was
critical was the things that that I should have done better.
Whether it was us an easy throw, Uh, didn't you
(07:02):
know make a right check at the line of scrimmage
and knew better, and it was more you know those
or make a stupid throw that gets intercepted where you
just force something and you know better. Those are the
things that would would wind up haunting me. And what happened,
you know, towards the end of my career was the
bad parts of the game of of my play would
(07:25):
frustrate me to a point to where the good things
didn't overcompensate for it, and and that, and it became
that way with the losses. You know, the losses were
much more painful than what the the elation was for victories,
and so uh, it becomes a very tormented Uh. You know,
(07:45):
sixteen seventeen weeks when you expect so much that you
don't get enough satisfaction from the winds to to take
the place of the defeats. What looking at your assessing
your career now that that it's finished, what did you
think was your greatest asked or virtue or talent? It's
a quarterback, Well I think that. Uh, I don't think
(08:05):
that I was the most talented guy that's that's played
by any means. I had an ability to throw the pass.
We're pretty much where I wanted. I was always very accurate.
I was accurate as a kid growing up. Uh. It's
not something that I spent a lot of time trying
to perfect. But I just had an ability and in
a confidence that I could throw the ball wherever I wanted.
At times it made me what I was, but at
(08:26):
times it would give me to trouble because I would
I would think I could fit a ball anywhere. In fact,
Terry Donahue and my coach at u c l A
UH told me when I was in college. He says,
you can't throw a football through a car wash and
not get it wet, so stop trying, you know. And
but I think the confidence in my arm allowed me
to do it. But I think what separated me from
UH from other players is that extremely competitive and extremely driven.
(08:52):
And I think that that being as stubborn is what
I am, and as hard headed as what I am,
I think that that UH maybe at times when I
should have just quit and said, hey, it's not gonna
work out, I didn't do that. A lot of people
we've talked to about you and your career, when you
point to the definition of what Troy Aikman is all about,
go to a game that you lost. So Steve's referencing
(09:15):
the NFC Championship game. The Cowboys were on a quest
for a three peat and met the Steve Young led
forty in San Francisco. Now you gotta remember this was
the rivalry of the nineties Cowboys forty Niners. This was
must see for four years in a row. One of
these two teams went on to win the Super Bowl.
(09:35):
It was the third straight NFC title game between Dallas
and San Francisco. Aikman through a first quarter interception that
was returned for a touchdown. And truly the Cowboys never
really recovered. Let's go back to Aikman's recollections and and
I think the reason for that is is because, well,
what happened was when I joined the team in eighty nine. Uh,
(09:56):
you know, we won one game and and and as
a starter for the Cowboys that year, I was going eleven.
And then the next year we we got a little
bit better, but we weren't on television, and people didn't know,
you know, who I was. I didn't know who Michael
Irvan was. I didn't know who Emmt. Smith was. It
didn't you know. We were a young group of guys
that were the worst team in the league. And so
when they first started taking notice of us is when
(10:19):
we were winning, and we made it to the playoffs
in ninety one, and then nine two we win the
Super Bowl. Ninety three we win the Super Bowl. So, uh,
you know, the first memory for people of of of
myself and of our team was of us always winning,
and we were winning most of the time, and and
so in ninety four and that championship game was really,
(10:40):
I think the first time that people got to see
us down on our luck and twenty one nothing before
people even got in their seats and had three turnovers
and you know, here we are in a championship game,
trying to go for a three peat and we're down
twenty one nothing. And I think it was everyone was
waiting to see how we would react or how I
would react, and uh, and we didn't quit. You know,
(11:03):
we kept kept fighting. And I think that because of
the way that we reacted, uh and kept fighting back,
that it endeared us to a lot of people. And
I think people got to see, you know, me in
a different light for the first time in our football team,
in a different line. You know, we were talking about
the physical nature to sport, physical pain, but what about
the emotional pain that comes with it? That that what
(11:25):
was the worst emotional pain you think suffered as a player.
And everybody's seeing the physical pain, but there's another side
to what people don't A lot of people aren't aware of.
Oh there's yeah, there's no question that there's an emotional
investment that's involved. And and I think sometimes there are
there are the cynics that say that, you know, boy,
this this, this athlete has got it. May they get
(11:46):
to play a sport, they get paid a lot of money,
you know, fame and all this, and I and I
don't know, I don't know of anybody who's ever been
that successful in a sport that that's the reasons that
they play. I mean, they play because they're very driven
in competitive and it's something that they love and they
don't do it for the fame. They don't do it
for the for the money. And so when you consider that,
(12:07):
then when you lose and you fail, uh, that is
an an emotional roller coaster. And for us, you know,
we were so successful and as a team and as
individuals that when we would lose a game, it was
so unexpected for us that it was it was it
(12:29):
was extremely difficult on on all of us to to
bounce back and go back and play. And then you know,
it just gets harder and harder. And when you've enjoyed
a lot of the success that we did there in
the later years, when we started to kind of go
through a rebuilding process, uh, it became extremely difficult because
the expectations for our football team, both internally as well
as uh, you know, by the public and the press,
(12:50):
was extremely demanding. We we weren't It wasn't uh accepted
for us to to not go out there and win
football games. Was there over a point, Troy, that you
doubted your your abilities when you got in the NFL?
And there was ever a point in your career and
you know, I don't know whether I'm gonna be able
to make this or or you know, a lot of
people would look at you and look at your career
and see these years A guy that came in was
(13:12):
a leader, confident right from the start. But was there
ever a point when you said, I don't know whether
I'm gonna cut it? You well, I uh, I knew
in college that I would get an opportunity to play
in the NFL. Uh whether that was going to be
as a free agent or a draft pick, but I
felt that I would get a shot. And then as
(13:33):
it turned out, I woind up becoming the first player chosen.
And you know, the first year you go on and
eleven as a starter, and I was I was fortunate
that I had a quarterback coach at the time by
the name of Jerry Rome that would not allow me
to lose confidence. I mean he would grab me after
every game and he talked to me and tell me about,
you know, about all the great things that I did,
you know, really accentuate the positives. And I think that
(13:56):
is so important for a young player because when you
get thrown in and start playing at early you know,
there's not a lot of good things that normally happen.
And to get through that and really learn, you have
to have someone who can keep you from losing your confidence.
And I never went through a period of saying, boy,
I just don't think I can play at this level. Yeah.
I went through periods of saying, I just don't know
(14:18):
how long it's going to take before I can play
at the level that I know I'm capable of. And
uh yeah, I thought it could take me, you know,
six years before I ever even got comfortable with things.
But I never doubted that at some point it would happen.
And uh and and it wound up happened a lot sooner.
What impacted Norv Turner had well he uh he, I
(14:40):
credit him for turning my whole career round. Just gonna
jump in here for a second to give you some
background on North Turner. Many of you may remember him
as the head coach of the Washington football team. Well,
they had a different name back then, the Oakland Raiders.
Oh they're in a different place, as is the San
Diego Chargers. I guess they're all different. But that's how
(15:01):
we started off his career. But really north success emanated
from the work he did in Dallas when he was
the offensive coordinator for the Cowboys. From he helped Aikman
and Dallas to win back to back Super Bowls, just
as Aikman who appreciated the value of Norv Turner more
(15:21):
than anyone. To me, Uh, we don't, you know, Jimmy
Johnson was an outstanding football coach and was you know
a great impact for our team. But I don't think
that we go on to win the Super Bowls or
have the success that we had if Norv Turner doesn't
come in and start running our offense. And he instilled
(15:42):
tremendous confidence in me, put in a system that that
really uh allowed my abilities to take over, and he
coordinated it in a way that, uh, you know, we
were able to get the ball to a guy like
Michael Irvin and Jay Novich. I can still run the
ball with with someone like Emmon Smith. And you know,
people will say that you have the play or is
that we had? How how hard can it be? But uh,
(16:03):
you have to massage a lot of egos and a
lot of people in order to make it all work.
And and nor was able to do that. And Uh
I played the system. Troy, You're saying that he put
in a system that was suited to your ability In
a layman's term, what what what was that? How did
that system or what was that system? And what abilities
of well? What what what we had done up until
norv got there was Uh, there was no real precision
(16:27):
and what we were trying to do within the passing game,
it was it was more of the old school, uh,
more of the Raiders type style of hey, sit back,
wait for guys to get open, and then when you
see him get open, throw the ball and uh, let
this receiver work on this guy and uh let him
take his time doing it. And then as a quarterback
you wait and find out when those moments are and
then once he's open and it takes it puts a
(16:49):
tremendous amount of pressure on the offensive line to to
hold guys out for for that long. And Uh, Norv
came in with the system that he had learned under
Ernie's MPs when they were with a Ams together. It's
the Don Corriel Dan fouls Air Corriel offense that is
predicated on the quarterback getting back quickly and getting rid
of the football and throwing the areas that the receivers
(17:12):
know the ball is going to be there and they
have to go get it. Uh. It's more timing based.
And it played to my strengths as a quarterback of
of anticipating throws, uh, reading defenses and being accurate with
the past and and so it just played in to
what I do best and and uh and it played
(17:33):
in really to our personnel and uh it was a
tremendous marriage and and we won three Super Bowls with
that system. Troy's relationship with Norv Turner was so strong
that when Aikman was inducted into the Pro Football Hall
of Fame in two thousand and six, he asked Norv
to introduce him, and in his Hall of Fame speech,
Aikman had this to say about his mentor, nor was
(17:55):
my coach for three years. That's it. I started playing
football at the age of seven and retired when I
was thirty four. And of all those years, Norv and
I were together for only three. And yet there's no
doubt in my mind that if Norv Turner had not
entered my life, I wouldn't be joining these men in
(18:15):
the Pro Football Hall of Fame today, and I thank
him for having the single biggest influence on my career. Here.
Thank you, nor I wouldn't be here without how close
was the bond between these two men. Well after Aikman
was released by the Cowboys and before his tiery retirement speech,
he very nearly became the quarterback of the Chargers, whose
(18:38):
head coach at the time was you got it, of course,
Norv Turner. He even went so far as to meet
with Turner and was legitimately excited about the possibility. The
team ultimately signed Doug Flutie, and Aikman announced his retirement
soon thereafter. When We Come Back, Steve and Troy get
into some of the quarterback's most memorable games, including the
(19:00):
experience of winning his first Super Bowl. Welcome back to
Tales from the Vault. If there's anyone else responsible for
Troy Aikman's career. Besides Norv Turner, it's Aikman's father. Kenneth. No,
he didn't teach Troy the exs and o's of football.
He wasn't his high school coach, and he didn't trade
(19:20):
him to be a quarterback at all. In fact, Troy
always wanted to be a baseball player as a kid
growing up in California, but that path changed when Troy
was twelve. That's when his father bought a hundred and
seventy two acre farm and moved the family to Henrietta, Oklahoma.
Kenneth Aikman rarely talked to the media, but in Texas
(19:41):
Monthly profile of Troy, the father was quoted as admitting
that he hadn't shown Troy affection quote more than maybe
once or twice. The story talked about how Aikman put
his son to work on the farm, forcing him to
carry buckets of slop for the pigs in the morning
and hall hey into the fields after foot ball practice.
It's safe to say that Kenneth Dakeman was a hardass,
(20:04):
and I say that respectfully, but leave it to Steve
to explore the effect that had on Troy. What if
he did you respect most about your dad? Well? Is uh?
You know, really, I I credit him for for my
success because he was a very demanding uh father. Uh,
(20:25):
you know, tremendous discipline, and he instilled that in all
of his kids. And I wasn't gonna play football in
eighth grade when when my family moved from California to Oklahoma. Uh,
And I think he sensed that I wasn't going to play,
and he came home one night and UH said, Hey,
they're signing up guys for eighth grade football down at
the stadium, and I just wanted to see if you
(20:46):
were going to play. And I think he knew that
I couldn't tell him I wasn't gonna play football, and
that's why he asked. And so I went and signed
up and played and continued to play obviously throughout the
rest of my career and the rest of the you know,
made it's where I am today. But football was his sport,
and I think he liked He liked the toughness of
it and the competitiveness of it. He never got a
chance to play sports when he was growing up. And Uh,
(21:08):
the things that I think made me what I was
as a player Uh, you know, the toughness, to discipline,
the work ethic, all of those things were instilled in
me as a child growing up with my father, and
they were demanded of me. So you were either gonna
be tough or you weren't gonna make it. You know,
you just weren't gonna survive in the Acheman house. And
so uh there was a part of me, I think
(21:30):
that always wanted to show him that I was as
tough as he was, or that I could handle as
much punishment as anybody. And uh, and so I took
a great deal of pride in my ability to to
stay in the pocket and get hit and deliver the football. Um.
And if I ever felt that, uh, that I cowered
(21:52):
away from a hit, Uh, to me, that would have
been a tremendous blow to what I tried to represent
and as as a player and what I tried to
approve to my father. So uh, without that and without
that upbringing, I don't know that I would have ever
become the player that I was able to become. When
you look at it, all the great quarterbacks Uniteds, Tanna,
(22:15):
they all had defining moments Elway. Elway had to drive
Montana the catch United the fifty eight championship. If I
was gonna ask you, what do you think you're defining moment? Was?
Is there one? Uh? I don't know that there's uh. Um.
I mean it's not that you're I mean, Marino doesn't
really have a defining moment either. It's just I just
(22:38):
thought maybe in your mind if there was, I think
that if there is, UH, I would probably say it
was a game that we had at a mile high
stadium in the ninety two season against Denver and we
went on that year to to to win the Super Bowl.
(22:59):
We were down own with one last drive and and
we were able to go down the field and score
and and and win that game. I think that was
a defining moment, uh for me as a quarterback to
bring the team back, And not that that we hadn't
done that before, but uh, at a time and a
and and and at a point in the season to
where a victory there was extremely big for us. I
(23:22):
think that was that was one. I think another defining
moment for me was probably the NFC championship game. Uh
also during that season at Candlestick, Because we had gone
into that game UH not expected to beat San Francisco
and and and it was a game that I played
exceptionally well and and we were able to to win
(23:44):
that ballgame. And I think that was the game that
maybe UH put me on the map, so to speak,
and and UH propelled propelled me on two greater things.
Can you remember your feelings and that first Super Bowl?
It was in Pasadena? And what I know you talked
to Michael and them about that, about what you're feeling about.
You know, just you couldn't. It was hard to breathe.
(24:04):
And because I couldn't, Yeah, I was hyperventilating in the huddle.
And Uh, I was fine. I was. It was amazing
because I really thought it would be extremely nervous. I
get butterflies anyway before every ball game and get a
little bit nervous. But for some reason, before that game, Uh,
the night before, I slept as well as I ever
had the night before a ball game. I got to
the stadium was extremely calm. I was very relaxed, and
(24:27):
uh to the point that I was a little bit
worried about that, but at least I was thinking, Man,
I'm I'm doing pretty good here. I kept monitoring my
my body and just making sure I was okay, and
then they did player introductions. And when they did player
introductions and I ran out on the field, that's when
it just the magnitude of the game, uh, overwhelmed me.
(24:49):
And I could not Uh, I couldn't get it back.
I just could not. I couldn't get my breathing down
to normal. And we went in the huddle and I
could hardly call the plays. I was having a hard
time match of my breath and and I think our
whole team was going through it because we had penalty.
We couldn't get lined. It's just simple things. Everybody was
just having these mental blocks. And and the first pass
(25:09):
that I threw it was a third down pass to
Michael and he was on a little simple corner route.
I threw it about twenty yards over his head and
I'm I was thinking, Holy cow, this is gonna be
I mean, I gotta get out of this somehow. And
unfortunately game kind of slowed down. But uh, we were
we were young guys on a stage that we had
not really uh we had not anticipated that we would
(25:34):
be there at that time because we were we still
hadn't planned on beating San Francisco two weeks earlier. In
the championship game, and uh, it was a great time
for all of us. Uh, and seeing the youth in
the innocence of that group of players, and and how
during the course of those sixty minutes, Uh, you know,
we really we we grew up. We grew up right
(25:55):
there on the biggest stage of football. There was a game,
a championship game I think against San Francisco. Jimmy Johnson
counting the paper, and he guaranteed that he was going
to win the game. What did you think about that
as a player? Well, what happened Actually he was on
Friday night. Friday night, Jimmy called one of the local stations,
Randy Galloway radio station, and uh, and he had been
(26:17):
listening to Randy that even about the championship game, and
I guess Randy said a few things that Jimmy was
a little bit upset about. And so Jimmy then called
the radio station and guaranteed that we were going to
have a win and that you could put it in
three inch headlines and quote him on it, which is
exactly what happened. The next morning. It was in three
inch headlines in the Dallas Morning News. Everybody thought Jimmy
(26:40):
was being so bold at the time that he made
the prediction, which is partly accurate. But I think the
other you know, Jimmy had had a few Hyneken's that night,
and I think he let you know, he let his
heart do his talking for him. And we came in
as players and we we could we were I can't
tell you. I'm thinking, what in the world has he done?
I mean, you can't do that. I I you know,
I wasn't these guys saying, yeah, coach believes in as
(27:01):
no one was. And I think Jimmy Uh, in fact,
he would tell you because he has said it that
the next morning, he really, he really thought he screwed
up and that he had made a real big mistake
by doing that. And fortunately we were able to go
out and win the game. And then it just made
(27:22):
you know, the it made for a great story. But
we could as players, we we couldn't believe it. We
absolutely could not believe that Jimmy Johnson would come out
and uh and say it. And to his credit, he
didn't back down from it at any point over the
next couple of days leading up to that ballgame. A
lot of times after a game we have shots of
(27:44):
coach coming up to an opposing player and shaking his hand.
Can you think of in your career the nicest thing
in opposing coach ever said you after games, or something
that really stood out in your mind. I had Mike
Holmgren after we beat the Green Bay Packers in the
championship game, the championship game following the nine season. Uh,
Mike Honggren came into our locker room, and it was
(28:06):
at Texas Stadium. Uh. He came into our locker room
and congratulated me on the game, and you know, said
some nice things about my performance. And that was one
of the most meaningful things that have that's ever happened
to me. Uh. For him to go to a stadium
that's not even his own and then come into the
(28:27):
home stadium after just having lost, you know, obviously a
very very tough ball game to keep them from going
to the super Bowl, and for him to come to
tell me what he thought of my performance. Uh and
and and and it was also meaningful because of the
respect that I had for him. Uh. That to me
was I was blown away by it. Uh. Bill Belichick
(28:50):
did that one year, the same thing, and in those
uh those two instances, probably as a for a head
coach of an oppone opposing team coming over and visiting me,
those two things stand out the most to me looking
back in your whole career. What's the most vivid memory
(29:10):
you have about foot And we could go back to
when you were little league, college or as or some
moment that when you think of the game, that that
that comes back to you, that that's a recurring image. Well,
the uh, you know obviously when you when you play,
you know, as long as as as what I did, Uh,
(29:30):
there are a lot of great moments. Uh. The the
moment than the memory that I have that that stands
out the most is and and I've said this before.
You know it isn't a particular play. Uh, it wasn't
when I was younger. It was the first Super Bowl. Uh,
(29:51):
when I threw a touchdown past Alvin Harper to pretty
much seal the game. We knew we were going to
win the game at that point, and I had, first
of all, I had never raised the number. I've never
done this after at any point in my career. I
see teams, I see guys that are having losing seasons
(30:12):
and they score touchdown they've given it the number one signal,
and I had never done that because, in my opinion, uh,
we had never been number one. And when we when
I threw that touchdown to Alvin Harper to know that
we won the game, we were gonna win the game.
It's the only time in my career that I that
I ever gave the number one signal when I was
(30:33):
running down to congratulate Alvin, and they've got it on film,
and then I came over the sidelines, and the the
sidelines and the look on everybody's faces, the celebration, uh,
to me is really what captures my imagination whenever I
think of my entire athletic career, because, uh, four years earlier,
(30:56):
we were the worst team in football, and we were
playing with a bunch of guys that people said we
would never win a championship with let alone, and even
have you know, we would never even have a winning
record with these guys. And four years later, we're winning
the world championship and we're on top of the world
in pro football. And to see those same guys celebrate, uh,
(31:17):
is to me what the whole experience was about. After
the game, Aikman was quoted as saying, it's a tremendous
amount of weight off my shoulders. No matter what happens
for the rest of my career, at least I can
say I took my team to a super Bowl and
I was able to win. You may remember Aikman was
the game's m v P in the stadium where he
played his college football, And of course, this was the
(31:39):
first of three Cowboys titles in four seasons. When we return,
we'll hear about Jerry Jones and the one thing Troy
Aikman never asked for from the Cowboys owner. In his
twelve seasons in the NFL, Troy Aikman had four head coaches,
(31:59):
Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Shan Gailey, and Dave Campbo. Now,
Troy and Barry didn't always see eye to eye, to
put it mildly, in fact, Aikman was the consummate pro.
He was disciplined and meticulous, and old Barry, well, let's
just say he could be a little loose in his ways.
So as an interviewer, there's always that one topic, that
(32:21):
one question you know you have to ask. But you
also know that if your subject is as polished as
Troy is, well, he can find ways to politely dance
around and not really generate any controversy, but it still
didn't stop Steve from trying to stir the pot. He
played for four different head coaches, which are the four
(32:42):
made the worst first impression, not necessarily what happened afterwards.
Can you remember the four coach you played for in
the the first meeting you had and he said, oh,
we're off to a bad start here, regardless of what
happened later. You know, I didn't have have that because
Jimmy Johnson recruited me at Oklahoma State when I was
(33:04):
coming out of high school. Uh So I knew him.
I had known him for a while. Barry I wanted
playing for it ohe you, I've known him before he
got there. Chan Gailey was really the first guy that
became the head coach that I really had no connection to.
Uh and I met him before he got the job,
and uh no, and then Campo was you know, he
(33:25):
had been the defensive coordinator. So I never thought, let
me go being in Philadelphia reading the papers what's what?
When Barry was there, there was always a lot of
publicity that Troy didn't degree with this. Troyd and like
what was Can you sum that up? What was going
on with that? What was the what was the reason?
I mean, and it's not unusual when you look at
history the quarterbacks and head coaches did not get along.
(33:46):
You talked to Terry Bradshaw about Chuck Nole, I mean,
Terry starts to grow hair on his pumps, you know
about that? Or even Joe Montana and Bill Walsh. I mean,
it's there's an interesting Auto. Graham, you know, had problems
with Paul Brown. Roger Stoback told me that he was
he'd never been so scared of anyone in his life
as Tom laid Well and uh, and Jimmy and I
(34:07):
started out that way, you know, we we we we
struggled there for a while. And I think, uh one,
I think what it is is that the quarterback and
the head coach take get more credit when things go well,
but they also get scrutinized more than any anybody else
when things aren't going well. And I've always said that
to the two most scrutinized people in an organization as
(34:29):
the head coach and the quarterback, and so, uh, it's
when the team's not doing well, Uh, the quarterback's gonna
take the heat, the head coach is gonna take the heat.
Every other position, you can pretty much do your job
and avoid uh any of the criticism that comes with that.
So there's a tremendous amount of steak for both people.
And as a result of that, I think that UH,
(34:52):
as a quarterback, you start seeing how things are being
done and you either agree with it or you disagree
with it, and so much of it is based on
what the what the team's doing and how much success
they're having. Uh. Jim and I didn't see ied I initially.
It took us a while to really get to know
each other. And then uh then we found out we
were a lot more alike than either one of us
wanted to admit from the beginning, and we went on
(35:14):
to win two Super Bowls his last two years there
in Dallas. And then uh Barry came in and I
had uh played for him at Oklahoma, like I said,
and his approach was much different than than what mine was,
and and UH, well you know, I'm uh my approach
is that, uh, you know, you you do everything you
(35:37):
can to to win games, and and you know, UH,
and I'm pretty intense about it, and expect a lot
and and from everybody, uh within an organization. And if
things aren't being done at a level that uh, that
allows you to have the success that we were accustomed to,
then then I I had problems with that, and I
(35:57):
wasn't afraid to voice those concerns. I didn't do it
on a in a public forum, but uh, you know,
I made it clearer within that that you know, we're
not doing things away. We need to do them in
order to give ourselves a chance to be successful. And
and there were times when I just felt that that
we were not paying attention to some of the little
things and the details that we had uh earlier and
(36:23):
to me and I always said that that the difference
between twelve and four and ten and six or twelve
and four and eight and eight is not much and
not not in the NFL. And if you don't handle
the little things and you let little things slide, then
at some point you're gonna drop and uh, and we
slowly began losing sight of the little things that allowed
(36:43):
us to be successful, and little by little we became
an average football team. We had you Mike for a game,
you know, and you really piste off you were really upsetting.
He came up. That could have been any game we
came up. You you called said, look, just I don't
want you to show that. I don't want you know,
because I'm why was that? I mean, tell us what
(37:04):
we saw it? We said, damn, here's the guy that
a quarter is really competitive. The team wasn't playing well,
you were piste off at somebody the sidelines, and out
of respect, he said, all right, we would we wouldn't
use do we use that now? Well I'm fair that
you will. Um you know, do you remember that? Absolutely? Think?
You know? And I was gonna say, and what's worse
(37:26):
is that that was a preseason game. You know, it
wasn't even a game that ultimately matter on the schedule.
To me, they all mattered as far as how you played.
But uh, that was a But then don't you see
why a fan is Look there's an insight into what
into a great quarterback of leaders saying for a menu,
See there, there's why he is as good as he is.
Because here's a preseason game. Doesn't mean it. I look
how piste off he is. You know, well, I think
(37:48):
that that was a side that you know, people early
on would see me. You know, I went through I
went through a couple of different phases as a player
early on in my career. You know, I was never
any less intent that I was during that uh what
you got on on camera, but they never caught it
on film. They never caught it on camera, and I
(38:08):
was never miked, And so whenever I got caught on film,
they always said, boy, he's a he's a really reserved
calm you know, not an emotional player, you know, And
and my teammates would say, you know, you guys are
talking about the wrong guy. And then I went through
a period where they did catch it. They started catching
capturing it every time I turned around. And so then
I went and and guys say, man, this guy he's
(38:30):
never happy. I mean, he's upset about everything. And you know, somewhere,
there's somewhere is where I was. I was somewhere in
between those two extremes. But I think that that's, ah,
that's a side that a lot of that, a lot
of people that followed us, you know, never never really
got exposed to. And uh, you know that that I
remember that game. Yeah, and that was pretty extreme um
(38:53):
for me. And it was just a horrendous effort on
on on our part, and I was extremely upset about
what was going on as uh, the tapes will show. Hey, guys,
that's an embarrassment out there, and it's like, damn embarrassment.
We can't block anyone have to Junior League. Jerry Jones
(39:14):
is one of the most controversial owners, you know, and
you know, I've always still applied the players he should
it be great to play for him, that he loves
to win, you know, And what was it like to
play for him? And it's from your standpoint of having
him as an owner. I mean, the criticis, well, he's
meddlesome and he's a pain in the ass, but this
and that. But but you played your you know, you
played for him for your whole career. Was what was
(39:35):
that like? It was? It was a tremendous experience. Uh,
you know, I I've said that, you know, he's arguably
the best owner in sports. And and the reason I
say that is because, uh, you know, he's he he
wanted to win. I Mean, people talk about Jerry and
and and his desire to make money, and yeah, there's
(39:59):
truth to that, but not in lieu of winning. And
the most important thing to him was winning football games.
And as a quarterback, Uh, if you've played for an
owner that cares that much about winning, and you can't
ask for anything more because eventually that's all a quarterback's
judged on is whether or not he won. And so
I was always very thankful for the fact that I
(40:21):
got to play for someone who cared that much about winning. Uh,
you can't say that about that many that many owners
in any sport, in particularly in the NFL, most of
them are just concerned about bottom line if they happen
to win. No, I never you never asked him for
a race. I never asked him for a raise. And uh,
you know, I always believe that if you sign a contract,
(40:43):
you you honor the contract and when you signed it,
you were happy and it shouldn't matter if someone else's
all of a sudden making more or you know, whatever
the situation. I haven't said that I was always Uh,
I was always happy with my contract. I never I
never was dissatisfied with with the money that I made
or uh, you know it, Jerry is he has done
(41:05):
a lot of great things for the game of football
that I don't think people really recognize. Uh. You know
what happened with television and Fox coming in and doing
the NFL. You know, Jerry had a big part of that,
and he's on the competition committee, I think, uh, you know,
he also had a lot to do with with the
free agency and the salary cap, which in my opinion,
is not a great thing for football. I don't think
(41:26):
it's great for the fans. But when when we're all
along gone, Jerry has made a mark on the National
Football League and most of the most of that mark
has been very positive and uh and to me that
says a lot about the guy in a short period
of time for him to have the impact that he's
had on the game. The last question, get back to
(41:48):
your retirement. If someone who didn't really know much about
football saw your retirement speech and how emotional you were,
and I mean this is like, you know, the you know,
the guys coming back from me what Jima that had
lost stir and and to so see your reaction, which
obviously genuine and obviously heartfelt, I mean they would say, well,
you know what a second, this is just football and
(42:10):
here's the guy that you know, he's spent al right,
eleven twelve years. I mean, how can you Why is
he so emotional about this? Why does this mean so much?
I mean, and I'm talking about now someone who doesn't
know much about flickball, wasn't a sports fan. How do
you answer that question? Is that you know, this is
just a game and it's only it's not his whole life.
I mean, there are men that have been a profession
for four or fifty years. The level of intensity of
(42:33):
that time that you spent must be, you know, unimaginable
to a person who well, I sort of fun that
question up a little. Yeah, but you know, I think
that Steve the you know how, the question being how
do you answer that? How do you how do you
express to somebody you know how it's that emotional? Um
my response would be that I wouldn't try I wouldn't
(42:55):
try to explain to somebody how uh emotional that moment
becomes or you know, heck, you only were there twelve years.
You know, there's others that have been in their profession
for forty years. Because you couldn't do it justice one
to try to explain it, and to try to explain
it to someone who's never felt that, they'll never get it.
And uh, I can't tell you how much time you
(43:21):
invest with a group of guys and how much you know.
Steve Young said it best, and he said it during
his press conference when he retired, that you get to
know your teammates better than you do your own family.
You know, in some regards, I know Michael Irvin better
than I do my own wife. And and in some regards,
he knows me better than he knows his own wife,
(43:42):
because he has seen me in moments and I've seen
him in moments that you really test someone's resolve, You
really test their character. You find out what they're all about. Uh.
And and and the cynics want to say, it's just
a game. Well, it's not just a game. I mean
it's uh, it's something that we're all very passionate about.
(44:03):
And when you go through the blood, sweat and the
tears and and you achieve the things that that we achieved,
and you have the setbacks and the defeats that we had,
and you invest so much, uh, you really find out
a lot about people. And when you find out what
you want to know about him, and that being Hey,
these guys are great friends, they're loyal, they're there, they
(44:25):
represent all the good things in life. Uh, that is
something that most people never get a chance to experience.
Listening to Aikman wax poetic about football makes it easy
to understand how long he's lasted on television. But believe
it or not, twice during his broadcasting career he was
asked to return to the league. In two two North
(44:48):
Turner than the offensive coordinator for the Dolphins. Yep, more
of again. Well, they called him midseason to replace an
injured j Fiedler, but after giving it some serious thought,
Aikman declined. But five weeks later, when Donovan McNabb got injured,
the Eagles, of all teams, called him. So the backstory
here is kind of cool. Just just let me tell
(45:09):
you real quick. Akeman was working for Fox and he
was in San Diego in the booth. They did one
of those game breaks in the second quarters saying Donovan
McNabb was hurt in Philadelphia and it looks like he
might have broken his ankle. So the producer gets in
Aikman's ear and says, hey, you need to call somebody
at halftime, and apans like what, He's never done that.
(45:29):
So the producer gives him a number and says it's
Andy Reid, the coach of the Eagles. So Aichman steps
out of the booth and he calls Read, and Read
explains this situation. He says, we're playing in San Francisco
on Monday night, and you'll be the starter. Akman says, Andy,
I haven't played in two years. Read continues, You'll be
all right. Aman says, I don't even know the offense,
(45:51):
and Reid says, that's okay, we'll make it work. You'll
be fine. So Aikman tells Read just wants to sleep
on it, and I'll call him the next day. So
Akman goes to bed that night and he says, quote,
I can wake up tomorrow morning and spend a nice
couple of days in Santa Barbara, or I can be
in frigid Philadelphia getting my brains kicked in wise move, Troy.
(46:14):
Can you imagine Troy Aikman and Eagles Green. I know
some Cowboys fans who are getting nauseous just at the
thought of it. Next week, Steve sits down with another
Pro Football Hall of Famer turned Fox announcer. When we
head back into the Vault for an interview with Steve
and Howie Long, I hope you'll join us. Thanks so
(46:36):
much for listening. I'm Andrea Kramer,
Welcome to another episode of NFL Films Tales from the Vault.
I'm your host, Andrea Kramer. When I started my TV
career at NFL Films as a producer, I had the
amazing opportunity to work for and learn from Steve Sable,
the true heart and soul of NFL Films. Among other things,
Steve was a creative genius, a brilliant cinematographer, and an
(00:28):
expert interviewer. This podcast showcases some of the greatest interviews
Steve ever did. They're raw, they're unedited, conversations, none of
which have ever been heard before in their entirety. For me,
the coolest part about this show is that it's like
a time capsule. It takes you back to a specific
moment in time for the people we're going to hear from.
(00:50):
And today we'll head to the Vault for Steve's two
thousand one interview with Troy Aikman. Yea, Nowadays, most people
(01:11):
know Troy Aikman for what he says on game day,
not for what he did on game day. After all,
it's hard to believe, but he's been an announcer on
Fox for nine years, longer than he played quarterback. For
the Cowboys. That's right. He played twelve seasons for Dallas
and is now in his twenty first season with Fox.
So when you're listening to this interview, I want you
(01:32):
to contemplate this. Tom Brady's playing career started in Aikman's
final season and is still going strong. Brady's in his
twenty second year. In fact, Brady has told me that
his brain and his body are still in sync, so
he believes he can play as long as he wants.
And that's really the difference in the game today versus
(01:53):
in the nineties. The quarterbacks in Troy's era, the Dan Marino's,
John Elway, Joe Montane, their careers rarely ended on their
own terms. In fact, for Aikman, ultimately it was his
body that gave out before his desire to play. This
conversation between Steve and Troy took place in June of two,
(02:15):
before Aikman ever called his first game, and before the
Hall of Fame. Beckoned Troy Aikman, MT Smith, Michael Irvin,
Jimmy Johnson, and Jerry Jones. I always like to set
the scene for you, So Steve and Troy are sitting outside.
In fact, you'll hear the birds there are Troy's home
in Santa Barbara, California. This is an opportunity for Aikman
(02:38):
to reflect on his entire career, just months after an
emotional press conference where he announced his retirement. And you
you watch, and you think that your time will never come,
and uh, so my time's come, and uh today I
(03:02):
announced my retirement from the National Football League and the
Dallas Cowboys, and uh it was twelve of the best
years of my life. Those emotions were coming from someone
who you kind of feel just wanted to keep playing
but physically couldn't. Now, Troy once told me the playing
(03:24):
quarterback was the toughest thing to do in all of
professional sports, and much of this classic interview delves into
the art of quarterbacking. Looking at your retirement day when
you retired, did you have some prepared remarks for that
when you were going to retire? You see, you must have.
But we were looking like that one like for an
(03:45):
hour or ye you surprised that the way you reacted
to that, You know it one. I knew that there
were a lot of people that that that needed to
be thanked and and that that was kind of my
opportunity to to thank so many people that have played
(04:06):
such a big part in my career. And there's so
many people, uh that that do so much for all
of us in our lives that uh people tend to
think is somewhat meaningless, but for those of us that
are in the middle of it, we realized that that's
not true. And so I I knew the people that
I wanted to mention. I had no idea that it
would go as long as it did. Uh you know,
(04:29):
I'm I'm I'm really a pretty emotional guy under the surface.
I I think that on on on the on the surface,
people would not see that. But I told my wife
on the way over there, I said, uh, you know,
this could really be a tough tough day for me
emotionally to to uh to say goodbye to one to
the game and then two to the people that have
(04:52):
meant so much to me for for the last twelve years.
And uh and as it turned out, it was, and
it and it was very early. I mean it hit
me as soon as as soon as I had to speak.
And uh, uh what was there something that memory or
some image that triggered the the emotion. I knew what
I think it was just the realization that it was
(05:13):
that it was coming to an end. And uh, you know,
seeing my teammates in the audience and and Michael Irvin
and EMMTT Smith and Darryl Johnston and Jay Novochek and
you know those guys, and then you immediately start having
flashbacks to all the all the special uh moments that
you've had and the big games and the celebrations and
the hugs and uh, you know, and I think that
(05:36):
that's the very thing that you miss when you're done playing.
You talk to anybody, it's it's yes, in some respects,
it is the game, but more than that, at least
for me, is the people and sharing in those moments.
And and as I tried to express during my press
commerce said, you know, the Cowboys is a very special
(05:57):
organization and they've got tremendous history. But it's not special
because they got a star on the helmet. And even
though for a lot of fans out there that's what
they identify with, Uh, it was special for me and
all of us because of the people behind the helmets
and the ones in the uniforms. And I played with
some great people and and uh, and when you say, boy,
(06:18):
you're not going to get a chance to go through
some of the the some of the best times of
your life professionally when you don't get to when you
know that that's ending. Uh, that's that's that's pretty emotional,
at least it is for me. In what area, Troy,
were you most critical of yourself? I mean when the
game was over and you would review how you play?
What area was the area that you always felt was
(06:40):
that you were most critical. Oh, you know, I would
go back, Uh this was good games, but this was
after every ball game, and I would replay every single pass, uh,
that that I threw, and I knew every incompletion. There
was every completion that I had. And where I was
critical was the things that that I should have done better.
Whether it was us an easy throw, Uh, didn't you
(07:02):
know make a right check at the line of scrimmage
and knew better, and it was more you know those
or make a stupid throw that gets intercepted where you
just force something and you know better. Those are the
things that would would wind up haunting me. And what happened,
you know, towards the end of my career was the
bad parts of the game of of my play would
(07:25):
frustrate me to a point to where the good things
didn't overcompensate for it, and and that, and it became
that way with the losses. You know, the losses were
much more painful than what the the elation was for victories,
and so uh, it becomes a very tormented Uh. You know,
(07:45):
sixteen seventeen weeks when you expect so much that you
don't get enough satisfaction from the winds to to take
the place of the defeats. What looking at your assessing
your career now that that it's finished, what did you
think was your greatest asked or virtue or talent? It's
a quarterback, Well I think that. Uh, I don't think
(08:05):
that I was the most talented guy that's that's played
by any means. I had an ability to throw the pass.
We're pretty much where I wanted. I was always very accurate.
I was accurate as a kid growing up. Uh. It's
not something that I spent a lot of time trying
to perfect. But I just had an ability and in
a confidence that I could throw the ball wherever I wanted.
At times it made me what I was, but at
(08:26):
times it would give me to trouble because I would
I would think I could fit a ball anywhere. In fact,
Terry Donahue and my coach at u c l A
UH told me when I was in college. He says,
you can't throw a football through a car wash and
not get it wet, so stop trying, you know. And
but I think the confidence in my arm allowed me
to do it. But I think what separated me from
UH from other players is that extremely competitive and extremely driven.
(08:52):
And I think that that being as stubborn is what
I am, and as hard headed as what I am,
I think that that UH maybe at times when I
should have just quit and said, hey, it's not gonna
work out, I didn't do that. A lot of people
we've talked to about you and your career, when you
point to the definition of what Troy Aikman is all about,
go to a game that you lost. So Steve's referencing
(09:15):
the NFC Championship game. The Cowboys were on a quest
for a three peat and met the Steve Young led
forty in San Francisco. Now you gotta remember this was
the rivalry of the nineties Cowboys forty Niners. This was
must see for four years in a row. One of
these two teams went on to win the Super Bowl.
(09:35):
It was the third straight NFC title game between Dallas
and San Francisco. Aikman through a first quarter interception that
was returned for a touchdown. And truly the Cowboys never
really recovered. Let's go back to Aikman's recollections and and
I think the reason for that is is because, well,
what happened was when I joined the team in eighty nine. Uh,
(09:56):
you know, we won one game and and and as
a starter for the Cowboys that year, I was going eleven.
And then the next year we we got a little
bit better, but we weren't on television, and people didn't know,
you know, who I was. I didn't know who Michael
Irvan was. I didn't know who Emmt. Smith was. It
didn't you know. We were a young group of guys
that were the worst team in the league. And so
when they first started taking notice of us is when
(10:19):
we were winning, and we made it to the playoffs
in ninety one, and then nine two we win the
Super Bowl. Ninety three we win the Super Bowl. So, uh,
you know, the first memory for people of of of
myself and of our team was of us always winning,
and we were winning most of the time, and and
so in ninety four and that championship game was really,
(10:40):
I think the first time that people got to see
us down on our luck and twenty one nothing before
people even got in their seats and had three turnovers
and you know, here we are in a championship game,
trying to go for a three peat and we're down
twenty one nothing. And I think it was everyone was
waiting to see how we would react or how I
would react, and uh, and we didn't quit. You know,
(11:03):
we kept kept fighting. And I think that because of
the way that we reacted, uh and kept fighting back,
that it endeared us to a lot of people. And
I think people got to see, you know, me in
a different light for the first time in our football team,
in a different line. You know, we were talking about
the physical nature to sport, physical pain, but what about
the emotional pain that comes with it? That that what
(11:25):
was the worst emotional pain you think suffered as a player.
And everybody's seeing the physical pain, but there's another side
to what people don't A lot of people aren't aware of.
Oh there's yeah, there's no question that there's an emotional
investment that's involved. And and I think sometimes there are
there are the cynics that say that, you know, boy,
this this, this athlete has got it. May they get
(11:46):
to play a sport, they get paid a lot of money,
you know, fame and all this, and I and I
don't know, I don't know of anybody who's ever been
that successful in a sport that that's the reasons that
they play. I mean, they play because they're very driven
in competitive and it's something that they love and they
don't do it for the fame. They don't do it
for the for the money. And so when you consider that,
(12:07):
then when you lose and you fail, uh, that is
an an emotional roller coaster. And for us, you know,
we were so successful and as a team and as
individuals that when we would lose a game, it was
so unexpected for us that it was it was it
(12:29):
was extremely difficult on on all of us to to
bounce back and go back and play. And then you know,
it just gets harder and harder. And when you've enjoyed
a lot of the success that we did there in
the later years, when we started to kind of go
through a rebuilding process, uh, it became extremely difficult because
the expectations for our football team, both internally as well
as uh, you know, by the public and the press,
(12:50):
was extremely demanding. We we weren't It wasn't uh accepted
for us to to not go out there and win
football games. Was there over a point, Troy, that you
doubted your your abilities when you got in the NFL?
And there was ever a point in your career and
you know, I don't know whether I'm gonna be able
to make this or or you know, a lot of
people would look at you and look at your career
and see these years A guy that came in was
(13:12):
a leader, confident right from the start. But was there
ever a point when you said, I don't know whether
I'm gonna cut it? You well, I uh, I knew
in college that I would get an opportunity to play
in the NFL. Uh whether that was going to be
as a free agent or a draft pick, but I
felt that I would get a shot. And then as
(13:33):
it turned out, I woind up becoming the first player chosen.
And you know, the first year you go on and
eleven as a starter, and I was I was fortunate
that I had a quarterback coach at the time by
the name of Jerry Rome that would not allow me
to lose confidence. I mean he would grab me after
every game and he talked to me and tell me about,
you know, about all the great things that I did,
you know, really accentuate the positives. And I think that
(13:56):
is so important for a young player because when you
get thrown in and start playing at early you know,
there's not a lot of good things that normally happen.
And to get through that and really learn, you have
to have someone who can keep you from losing your confidence.
And I never went through a period of saying, boy,
I just don't think I can play at this level. Yeah.
I went through periods of saying, I just don't know
(14:18):
how long it's going to take before I can play
at the level that I know I'm capable of. And
uh yeah, I thought it could take me, you know,
six years before I ever even got comfortable with things.
But I never doubted that at some point it would happen.
And uh and and it wound up happened a lot sooner.
What impacted Norv Turner had well he uh he, I
(14:40):
credit him for turning my whole career round. Just gonna
jump in here for a second to give you some
background on North Turner. Many of you may remember him
as the head coach of the Washington football team. Well,
they had a different name back then, the Oakland Raiders.
Oh they're in a different place, as is the San
Diego Chargers. I guess they're all different. But that's how
(15:01):
we started off his career. But really north success emanated
from the work he did in Dallas when he was
the offensive coordinator for the Cowboys. From he helped Aikman
and Dallas to win back to back Super Bowls, just
as Aikman who appreciated the value of Norv Turner more
(15:21):
than anyone. To me, Uh, we don't, you know, Jimmy
Johnson was an outstanding football coach and was you know
a great impact for our team. But I don't think
that we go on to win the Super Bowls or
have the success that we had if Norv Turner doesn't
come in and start running our offense. And he instilled
(15:42):
tremendous confidence in me, put in a system that that
really uh allowed my abilities to take over, and he
coordinated it in a way that, uh, you know, we
were able to get the ball to a guy like
Michael Irvin and Jay Novich. I can still run the
ball with with someone like Emmon Smith. And you know,
people will say that you have the play or is
that we had? How how hard can it be? But uh,
(16:03):
you have to massage a lot of egos and a
lot of people in order to make it all work.
And and nor was able to do that. And Uh
I played the system. Troy, You're saying that he put
in a system that was suited to your ability In
a layman's term, what what what was that? How did
that system or what was that system? And what abilities
of well? What what what we had done up until
norv got there was Uh, there was no real precision
(16:27):
and what we were trying to do within the passing game,
it was it was more of the old school, uh,
more of the Raiders type style of hey, sit back,
wait for guys to get open, and then when you
see him get open, throw the ball and uh, let
this receiver work on this guy and uh let him
take his time doing it. And then as a quarterback
you wait and find out when those moments are and
then once he's open and it takes it puts a
(16:49):
tremendous amount of pressure on the offensive line to to
hold guys out for for that long. And Uh, Norv
came in with the system that he had learned under
Ernie's MPs when they were with a Ams together. It's
the Don Corriel Dan fouls Air Corriel offense that is
predicated on the quarterback getting back quickly and getting rid
of the football and throwing the areas that the receivers
(17:12):
know the ball is going to be there and they
have to go get it. Uh. It's more timing based.
And it played to my strengths as a quarterback of
of anticipating throws, uh, reading defenses and being accurate with
the past and and so it just played in to
what I do best and and uh and it played
(17:33):
in really to our personnel and uh it was a
tremendous marriage and and we won three Super Bowls with
that system. Troy's relationship with Norv Turner was so strong
that when Aikman was inducted into the Pro Football Hall
of Fame in two thousand and six, he asked Norv
to introduce him, and in his Hall of Fame speech,
Aikman had this to say about his mentor, nor was
(17:55):
my coach for three years. That's it. I started playing
football at the age of seven and retired when I
was thirty four. And of all those years, Norv and
I were together for only three. And yet there's no
doubt in my mind that if Norv Turner had not
entered my life, I wouldn't be joining these men in
(18:15):
the Pro Football Hall of Fame today, and I thank
him for having the single biggest influence on my career. Here.
Thank you, nor I wouldn't be here without how close
was the bond between these two men. Well after Aikman
was released by the Cowboys and before his tiery retirement speech,
he very nearly became the quarterback of the Chargers, whose
(18:38):
head coach at the time was you got it, of course,
Norv Turner. He even went so far as to meet
with Turner and was legitimately excited about the possibility. The
team ultimately signed Doug Flutie, and Aikman announced his retirement
soon thereafter. When We Come Back, Steve and Troy get
into some of the quarterback's most memorable games, including the
(19:00):
experience of winning his first Super Bowl. Welcome back to
Tales from the Vault. If there's anyone else responsible for
Troy Aikman's career. Besides Norv Turner, it's Aikman's father. Kenneth. No,
he didn't teach Troy the exs and o's of football.
He wasn't his high school coach, and he didn't trade
(19:20):
him to be a quarterback at all. In fact, Troy
always wanted to be a baseball player as a kid
growing up in California, but that path changed when Troy
was twelve. That's when his father bought a hundred and
seventy two acre farm and moved the family to Henrietta, Oklahoma.
Kenneth Aikman rarely talked to the media, but in Texas
(19:41):
Monthly profile of Troy, the father was quoted as admitting
that he hadn't shown Troy affection quote more than maybe
once or twice. The story talked about how Aikman put
his son to work on the farm, forcing him to
carry buckets of slop for the pigs in the morning
and hall hey into the fields after foot ball practice.
It's safe to say that Kenneth Dakeman was a hardass,
(20:04):
and I say that respectfully, but leave it to Steve
to explore the effect that had on Troy. What if
he did you respect most about your dad? Well? Is uh?
You know, really, I I credit him for for my
success because he was a very demanding uh father. Uh,
(20:25):
you know, tremendous discipline, and he instilled that in all
of his kids. And I wasn't gonna play football in
eighth grade when when my family moved from California to Oklahoma. Uh,
And I think he sensed that I wasn't going to play,
and he came home one night and UH said, Hey,
they're signing up guys for eighth grade football down at
the stadium, and I just wanted to see if you
(20:46):
were going to play. And I think he knew that
I couldn't tell him I wasn't gonna play football, and
that's why he asked. And so I went and signed
up and played and continued to play obviously throughout the
rest of my career and the rest of the you know,
made it's where I am today. But football was his sport,
and I think he liked He liked the toughness of
it and the competitiveness of it. He never got a
chance to play sports when he was growing up. And Uh,
(21:08):
the things that I think made me what I was
as a player Uh, you know, the toughness, to discipline,
the work ethic, all of those things were instilled in
me as a child growing up with my father, and
they were demanded of me. So you were either gonna
be tough or you weren't gonna make it. You know,
you just weren't gonna survive in the Acheman house. And
so uh there was a part of me, I think
(21:30):
that always wanted to show him that I was as
tough as he was, or that I could handle as
much punishment as anybody. And uh, and so I took
a great deal of pride in my ability to to
stay in the pocket and get hit and deliver the football. Um.
And if I ever felt that, uh, that I cowered
(21:52):
away from a hit, Uh, to me, that would have
been a tremendous blow to what I tried to represent
and as as a player and what I tried to
approve to my father. So uh, without that and without
that upbringing, I don't know that I would have ever
become the player that I was able to become. When
you look at it, all the great quarterbacks Uniteds, Tanna,
(22:15):
they all had defining moments Elway. Elway had to drive
Montana the catch United the fifty eight championship. If I
was gonna ask you, what do you think you're defining moment? Was?
Is there one? Uh? I don't know that there's uh. Um.
I mean it's not that you're I mean, Marino doesn't
really have a defining moment either. It's just I just
(22:38):
thought maybe in your mind if there was, I think
that if there is, UH, I would probably say it
was a game that we had at a mile high
stadium in the ninety two season against Denver and we
went on that year to to to win the Super Bowl.
(22:59):
We were down own with one last drive and and
we were able to go down the field and score
and and and win that game. I think that was
a defining moment, uh for me as a quarterback to
bring the team back, And not that that we hadn't
done that before, but uh, at a time and a
and and and at a point in the season to
where a victory there was extremely big for us. I
(23:22):
think that was that was one. I think another defining
moment for me was probably the NFC championship game. Uh
also during that season at Candlestick, Because we had gone
into that game UH not expected to beat San Francisco
and and and it was a game that I played
exceptionally well and and we were able to to win
(23:44):
that ballgame. And I think that was the game that
maybe UH put me on the map, so to speak,
and and UH propelled propelled me on two greater things.
Can you remember your feelings and that first Super Bowl?
It was in Pasadena? And what I know you talked
to Michael and them about that, about what you're feeling about.
You know, just you couldn't. It was hard to breathe.
(24:04):
And because I couldn't, Yeah, I was hyperventilating in the huddle.
And Uh, I was fine. I was. It was amazing
because I really thought it would be extremely nervous. I
get butterflies anyway before every ball game and get a
little bit nervous. But for some reason, before that game, Uh,
the night before, I slept as well as I ever
had the night before a ball game. I got to
the stadium was extremely calm. I was very relaxed, and
(24:27):
uh to the point that I was a little bit
worried about that, but at least I was thinking, Man,
I'm I'm doing pretty good here. I kept monitoring my
my body and just making sure I was okay, and
then they did player introductions. And when they did player
introductions and I ran out on the field, that's when
it just the magnitude of the game, uh, overwhelmed me.
(24:49):
And I could not Uh, I couldn't get it back.
I just could not. I couldn't get my breathing down
to normal. And we went in the huddle and I
could hardly call the plays. I was having a hard
time match of my breath and and I think our
whole team was going through it because we had penalty.
We couldn't get lined. It's just simple things. Everybody was
just having these mental blocks. And and the first pass
(25:09):
that I threw it was a third down pass to
Michael and he was on a little simple corner route.
I threw it about twenty yards over his head and
I'm I was thinking, Holy cow, this is gonna be
I mean, I gotta get out of this somehow. And
unfortunately game kind of slowed down. But uh, we were
we were young guys on a stage that we had
not really uh we had not anticipated that we would
(25:34):
be there at that time because we were we still
hadn't planned on beating San Francisco two weeks earlier. In
the championship game, and uh, it was a great time
for all of us. Uh, and seeing the youth in
the innocence of that group of players, and and how
during the course of those sixty minutes, Uh, you know,
we really we we grew up. We grew up right
(25:55):
there on the biggest stage of football. There was a game,
a championship game I think against San Francisco. Jimmy Johnson
counting the paper, and he guaranteed that he was going
to win the game. What did you think about that
as a player? Well, what happened Actually he was on
Friday night. Friday night, Jimmy called one of the local stations,
Randy Galloway radio station, and uh, and he had been
(26:17):
listening to Randy that even about the championship game, and
I guess Randy said a few things that Jimmy was
a little bit upset about. And so Jimmy then called
the radio station and guaranteed that we were going to
have a win and that you could put it in
three inch headlines and quote him on it, which is
exactly what happened. The next morning. It was in three
inch headlines in the Dallas Morning News. Everybody thought Jimmy
(26:40):
was being so bold at the time that he made
the prediction, which is partly accurate. But I think the
other you know, Jimmy had had a few Hyneken's that night,
and I think he let you know, he let his
heart do his talking for him. And we came in
as players and we we could we were I can't
tell you. I'm thinking, what in the world has he done?
I mean, you can't do that. I I you know,
I wasn't these guys saying, yeah, coach believes in as
(27:01):
no one was. And I think Jimmy Uh, in fact,
he would tell you because he has said it that
the next morning, he really, he really thought he screwed
up and that he had made a real big mistake
by doing that. And fortunately we were able to go
out and win the game. And then it just made
(27:22):
you know, the it made for a great story. But
we could as players, we we couldn't believe it. We
absolutely could not believe that Jimmy Johnson would come out
and uh and say it. And to his credit, he
didn't back down from it at any point over the
next couple of days leading up to that ballgame. A
lot of times after a game we have shots of
(27:44):
coach coming up to an opposing player and shaking his hand.
Can you think of in your career the nicest thing
in opposing coach ever said you after games, or something
that really stood out in your mind. I had Mike
Holmgren after we beat the Green Bay Packers in the
championship game, the championship game following the nine season. Uh,
Mike Honggren came into our locker room, and it was
(28:06):
at Texas Stadium. Uh. He came into our locker room
and congratulated me on the game, and you know, said
some nice things about my performance. And that was one
of the most meaningful things that have that's ever happened
to me. Uh. For him to go to a stadium
that's not even his own and then come into the
(28:27):
home stadium after just having lost, you know, obviously a
very very tough ball game to keep them from going
to the super Bowl, and for him to come to
tell me what he thought of my performance. Uh and
and and and it was also meaningful because of the
respect that I had for him. Uh. That to me
was I was blown away by it. Uh. Bill Belichick
(28:50):
did that one year, the same thing, and in those
uh those two instances, probably as a for a head
coach of an oppone opposing team coming over and visiting me,
those two things stand out the most to me looking
back in your whole career. What's the most vivid memory
(29:10):
you have about foot And we could go back to
when you were little league, college or as or some
moment that when you think of the game, that that
that comes back to you, that that's a recurring image. Well,
the uh, you know obviously when you when you play,
you know, as long as as as what I did, Uh,
(29:30):
there are a lot of great moments. Uh. The the
moment than the memory that I have that that stands
out the most is and and I've said this before.
You know it isn't a particular play. Uh, it wasn't
when I was younger. It was the first Super Bowl. Uh,
(29:51):
when I threw a touchdown past Alvin Harper to pretty
much seal the game. We knew we were going to
win the game at that point, and I had, first
of all, I had never raised the number. I've never
done this after at any point in my career. I
see teams, I see guys that are having losing seasons
(30:12):
and they score touchdown they've given it the number one signal,
and I had never done that because, in my opinion, uh,
we had never been number one. And when we when
I threw that touchdown to Alvin Harper to know that
we won the game, we were gonna win the game.
It's the only time in my career that I that
I ever gave the number one signal when I was
(30:33):
running down to congratulate Alvin, and they've got it on film,
and then I came over the sidelines, and the the
sidelines and the look on everybody's faces, the celebration, uh,
to me is really what captures my imagination whenever I
think of my entire athletic career, because, uh, four years earlier,
(30:56):
we were the worst team in football, and we were
playing with a bunch of guys that people said we
would never win a championship with let alone, and even
have you know, we would never even have a winning
record with these guys. And four years later, we're winning
the world championship and we're on top of the world
in pro football. And to see those same guys celebrate, uh,
(31:17):
is to me what the whole experience was about. After
the game, Aikman was quoted as saying, it's a tremendous
amount of weight off my shoulders. No matter what happens
for the rest of my career, at least I can
say I took my team to a super Bowl and
I was able to win. You may remember Aikman was
the game's m v P in the stadium where he
played his college football, And of course, this was the
(31:39):
first of three Cowboys titles in four seasons. When we return,
we'll hear about Jerry Jones and the one thing Troy
Aikman never asked for from the Cowboys owner. In his
twelve seasons in the NFL, Troy Aikman had four head coaches,
(31:59):
Jimmy Johnson, Barry Switzer, Shan Gailey, and Dave Campbo. Now,
Troy and Barry didn't always see eye to eye, to
put it mildly, in fact, Aikman was the consummate pro.
He was disciplined and meticulous, and old Barry, well, let's
just say he could be a little loose in his ways.
So as an interviewer, there's always that one topic, that
(32:21):
one question you know you have to ask. But you
also know that if your subject is as polished as
Troy is, well, he can find ways to politely dance
around and not really generate any controversy, but it still
didn't stop Steve from trying to stir the pot. He
played for four different head coaches, which are the four
(32:42):
made the worst first impression, not necessarily what happened afterwards.
Can you remember the four coach you played for in
the the first meeting you had and he said, oh,
we're off to a bad start here, regardless of what
happened later. You know, I didn't have have that because
Jimmy Johnson recruited me at Oklahoma State when I was
(33:04):
coming out of high school. Uh So I knew him.
I had known him for a while. Barry I wanted
playing for it ohe you, I've known him before he
got there. Chan Gailey was really the first guy that
became the head coach that I really had no connection to.
Uh and I met him before he got the job,
and uh no, and then Campo was you know, he
(33:25):
had been the defensive coordinator. So I never thought, let
me go being in Philadelphia reading the papers what's what?
When Barry was there, there was always a lot of
publicity that Troy didn't degree with this. Troyd and like
what was Can you sum that up? What was going
on with that? What was the what was the reason?
I mean, and it's not unusual when you look at
history the quarterbacks and head coaches did not get along.
(33:46):
You talked to Terry Bradshaw about Chuck Nole, I mean,
Terry starts to grow hair on his pumps, you know
about that? Or even Joe Montana and Bill Walsh. I mean,
it's there's an interesting Auto. Graham, you know, had problems
with Paul Brown. Roger Stoback told me that he was
he'd never been so scared of anyone in his life
as Tom laid Well and uh, and Jimmy and I
(34:07):
started out that way, you know, we we we we
struggled there for a while. And I think, uh one,
I think what it is is that the quarterback and
the head coach take get more credit when things go well,
but they also get scrutinized more than any anybody else
when things aren't going well. And I've always said that
to the two most scrutinized people in an organization as
(34:29):
the head coach and the quarterback, and so, uh, it's
when the team's not doing well, Uh, the quarterback's gonna
take the heat, the head coach is gonna take the heat.
Every other position, you can pretty much do your job
and avoid uh any of the criticism that comes with that.
So there's a tremendous amount of steak for both people.
And as a result of that, I think that UH,
(34:52):
as a quarterback, you start seeing how things are being
done and you either agree with it or you disagree
with it, and so much of it is based on
what the what the team's doing and how much success
they're having. Uh. Jim and I didn't see ied I initially.
It took us a while to really get to know
each other. And then uh then we found out we
were a lot more alike than either one of us
wanted to admit from the beginning, and we went on
(35:14):
to win two Super Bowls his last two years there
in Dallas. And then uh Barry came in and I
had uh played for him at Oklahoma, like I said,
and his approach was much different than than what mine was,
and and UH, well you know, I'm uh my approach
is that, uh, you know, you you do everything you
(35:37):
can to to win games, and and you know, UH,
and I'm pretty intense about it, and expect a lot
and and from everybody, uh within an organization. And if
things aren't being done at a level that uh, that
allows you to have the success that we were accustomed to,
then then I I had problems with that, and I
(35:57):
wasn't afraid to voice those concerns. I didn't do it
on a in a public forum, but uh, you know,
I made it clearer within that that you know, we're
not doing things away. We need to do them in
order to give ourselves a chance to be successful. And
and there were times when I just felt that that
we were not paying attention to some of the little
things and the details that we had uh earlier and
(36:23):
to me and I always said that that the difference
between twelve and four and ten and six or twelve
and four and eight and eight is not much and
not not in the NFL. And if you don't handle
the little things and you let little things slide, then
at some point you're gonna drop and uh, and we
slowly began losing sight of the little things that allowed
(36:43):
us to be successful, and little by little we became
an average football team. We had you Mike for a game,
you know, and you really piste off you were really upsetting.
He came up. That could have been any game we
came up. You you called said, look, just I don't
want you to show that. I don't want you know,
because I'm why was that? I mean, tell us what
(37:04):
we saw it? We said, damn, here's the guy that
a quarter is really competitive. The team wasn't playing well,
you were piste off at somebody the sidelines, and out
of respect, he said, all right, we would we wouldn't
use do we use that now? Well I'm fair that
you will. Um you know, do you remember that? Absolutely? Think?
You know? And I was gonna say, and what's worse
(37:26):
is that that was a preseason game. You know, it
wasn't even a game that ultimately matter on the schedule.
To me, they all mattered as far as how you played.
But uh, that was a But then don't you see
why a fan is Look there's an insight into what
into a great quarterback of leaders saying for a menu,
See there, there's why he is as good as he is.
Because here's a preseason game. Doesn't mean it. I look
how piste off he is. You know, well, I think
(37:48):
that that was a side that you know, people early
on would see me. You know, I went through I
went through a couple of different phases as a player
early on in my career. You know, I was never
any less intent that I was during that uh what
you got on on camera, but they never caught it
on film. They never caught it on camera, and I
(38:08):
was never miked, And so whenever I got caught on film,
they always said, boy, he's a he's a really reserved
calm you know, not an emotional player, you know, And
and my teammates would say, you know, you guys are
talking about the wrong guy. And then I went through
a period where they did catch it. They started catching
capturing it every time I turned around. And so then
I went and and guys say, man, this guy he's
(38:30):
never happy. I mean, he's upset about everything. And you know, somewhere,
there's somewhere is where I was. I was somewhere in
between those two extremes. But I think that that's, ah,
that's a side that a lot of that, a lot
of people that followed us, you know, never never really
got exposed to. And uh, you know that that I
remember that game. Yeah, and that was pretty extreme um
(38:53):
for me. And it was just a horrendous effort on
on on our part, and I was extremely upset about
what was going on as uh, the tapes will show. Hey, guys,
that's an embarrassment out there, and it's like, damn embarrassment.
We can't block anyone have to Junior League. Jerry Jones
(39:14):
is one of the most controversial owners, you know, and
you know, I've always still applied the players he should
it be great to play for him, that he loves
to win, you know, And what was it like to
play for him? And it's from your standpoint of having
him as an owner. I mean, the criticis, well, he's
meddlesome and he's a pain in the ass, but this
and that. But but you played your you know, you
played for him for your whole career. Was what was
(39:35):
that like? It was? It was a tremendous experience. Uh,
you know, I I've said that, you know, he's arguably
the best owner in sports. And and the reason I
say that is because, uh, you know, he's he he
wanted to win. I Mean, people talk about Jerry and
and and his desire to make money, and yeah, there's
(39:59):
truth to that, but not in lieu of winning. And
the most important thing to him was winning football games.
And as a quarterback, Uh, if you've played for an
owner that cares that much about winning, and you can't
ask for anything more because eventually that's all a quarterback's
judged on is whether or not he won. And so
I was always very thankful for the fact that I
(40:21):
got to play for someone who cared that much about winning. Uh,
you can't say that about that many that many owners
in any sport, in particularly in the NFL, most of
them are just concerned about bottom line if they happen
to win. No, I never you never asked him for
a race. I never asked him for a raise. And uh,
you know, I always believe that if you sign a contract,
(40:43):
you you honor the contract and when you signed it,
you were happy and it shouldn't matter if someone else's
all of a sudden making more or you know, whatever
the situation. I haven't said that I was always Uh,
I was always happy with my contract. I never I
never was dissatisfied with with the money that I made
or uh, you know it, Jerry is he has done
(41:05):
a lot of great things for the game of football
that I don't think people really recognize. Uh. You know
what happened with television and Fox coming in and doing
the NFL. You know, Jerry had a big part of that,
and he's on the competition committee, I think, uh, you know,
he also had a lot to do with with the
free agency and the salary cap, which in my opinion,
is not a great thing for football. I don't think
(41:26):
it's great for the fans. But when when we're all
along gone, Jerry has made a mark on the National
Football League and most of the most of that mark
has been very positive and uh and to me that
says a lot about the guy in a short period
of time for him to have the impact that he's
had on the game. The last question, get back to
(41:48):
your retirement. If someone who didn't really know much about
football saw your retirement speech and how emotional you were,
and I mean this is like, you know, the you know,
the guys coming back from me what Jima that had
lost stir and and to so see your reaction, which
obviously genuine and obviously heartfelt, I mean they would say, well,
you know what a second, this is just football and
(42:10):
here's the guy that you know, he's spent al right,
eleven twelve years. I mean, how can you Why is
he so emotional about this? Why does this mean so much?
I mean, and I'm talking about now someone who doesn't
know much about flickball, wasn't a sports fan. How do
you answer that question? Is that you know, this is
just a game and it's only it's not his whole life.
I mean, there are men that have been a profession
for four or fifty years. The level of intensity of
(42:33):
that time that you spent must be, you know, unimaginable
to a person who well, I sort of fun that
question up a little. Yeah, but you know, I think
that Steve the you know how, the question being how
do you answer that? How do you how do you
express to somebody you know how it's that emotional? Um
my response would be that I wouldn't try I wouldn't
(42:55):
try to explain to somebody how uh emotional that moment
becomes or you know, heck, you only were there twelve years.
You know, there's others that have been in their profession
for forty years. Because you couldn't do it justice one
to try to explain it, and to try to explain
it to someone who's never felt that, they'll never get it.
And uh, I can't tell you how much time you
(43:21):
invest with a group of guys and how much you know.
Steve Young said it best, and he said it during
his press conference when he retired, that you get to
know your teammates better than you do your own family.
You know, in some regards, I know Michael Irvin better
than I do my own wife. And and in some regards,
he knows me better than he knows his own wife,
(43:42):
because he has seen me in moments and I've seen
him in moments that you really test someone's resolve, You
really test their character. You find out what they're all about. Uh.
And and and the cynics want to say, it's just
a game. Well, it's not just a game. I mean
it's uh, it's something that we're all very passionate about.
(44:03):
And when you go through the blood, sweat and the
tears and and you achieve the things that that we achieved,
and you have the setbacks and the defeats that we had,
and you invest so much, uh, you really find out
a lot about people. And when you find out what
you want to know about him, and that being Hey,
these guys are great friends, they're loyal, they're there, they
(44:25):
represent all the good things in life. Uh, that is
something that most people never get a chance to experience.
Listening to Aikman wax poetic about football makes it easy
to understand how long he's lasted on television. But believe
it or not, twice during his broadcasting career he was
asked to return to the league. In two two North
(44:48):
Turner than the offensive coordinator for the Dolphins. Yep, more
of again. Well, they called him midseason to replace an
injured j Fiedler, but after giving it some serious thought,
Aikman declined. But five weeks later, when Donovan McNabb got injured,
the Eagles, of all teams, called him. So the backstory
here is kind of cool. Just just let me tell
(45:09):
you real quick. Akeman was working for Fox and he
was in San Diego in the booth. They did one
of those game breaks in the second quarters saying Donovan
McNabb was hurt in Philadelphia and it looks like he
might have broken his ankle. So the producer gets in
Aikman's ear and says, hey, you need to call somebody
at halftime, and apans like what, He's never done that.
(45:29):
So the producer gives him a number and says it's
Andy Reid, the coach of the Eagles. So Aichman steps
out of the booth and he calls Read, and Read
explains this situation. He says, we're playing in San Francisco
on Monday night, and you'll be the starter. Akman says, Andy,
I haven't played in two years. Read continues, You'll be
all right. Aman says, I don't even know the offense,
(45:51):
and Reid says, that's okay, we'll make it work. You'll
be fine. So Aikman tells Read just wants to sleep
on it, and I'll call him the next day. So
Akman goes to bed that night and he says, quote,
I can wake up tomorrow morning and spend a nice
couple of days in Santa Barbara, or I can be
in frigid Philadelphia getting my brains kicked in wise move, Troy.
(46:14):
Can you imagine Troy Aikman and Eagles Green. I know
some Cowboys fans who are getting nauseous just at the
thought of it. Next week, Steve sits down with another
Pro Football Hall of Famer turned Fox announcer. When we
head back into the Vault for an interview with Steve
and Howie Long, I hope you'll join us. Thanks so
(46:36):
much for listening. I'm Andrea Kramer,
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