Troy Aikman said he did not expect an opportunity with the Cowboys and was not surprised one has not come, even though a role in Dallas would have been ideal for the Hall of Fame quarterback. Aikman, who lives in Dallas and spent his playing career there, said the Miami Dolphins reached out this offseason and asked if he could help.
That left Aikman in a familiar place: still tied to the franchise that gave him his name, but now working with another team. He told The Dallas Morning News that he has a 12-year history with the Cowboys organization, that he always roots for them and that his allegiance as a player never split because he played only one team. “There’s no way around it,” he said of his connection to Dallas, while also saying he has a rooting interest in the Dolphins.
The move to Miami is not small. Aikman was hired by the Dolphins this offseason as a consultant and was involved in the hiring of the team’s new general manager and head coach, giving him a direct role in decisions far from the broadcast booth where he has spent years as a long-time analyst for Fox Sports and now. In Dallas, meanwhile, the Cowboys remain a franchise still living off the glow of the 1990s, when Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Darren Woodson helped deliver three Super Bowl rings, and the 1970s, when the team won two titles. The club has gone 30 years without another Super Bowl.
The tension, for Cowboys fans and for Aikman, is that the door has not opened on the kind of front-office role some might have imagined for one of the greatest players in franchise history. Jones has said his door is always open to former players, but the relationship has not translated into a job for Aikman, even after last season’s public silence when Aikman said the Cowboys should not make a trade at the deadline. Aikman said his relationship with Jerry Jones is cordial and that they talk when they run into each other. Jones owns and runs the Cowboys, with family members also holding prominent front-office positions, leaving little mystery about where control sits.
For now, Aikman is helping Miami while still pulling for Dallas, a split that reflects exactly how long his name has remained attached to the Cowboys. He said an official role there would have made sense because it is where he lives and where he played, but the one team he wore as a player is still waiting for that kind of homecoming. For readers following his next public appearance, Dak Prescott joins Troy Aikman at Children's Cancer Fund gala in Dallas, where the quarterback’s Cowboys ties will again be impossible to miss.
