The new ESPN Monday Night Football broadcast team of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman made their Disney debut this morning on Good Morning America to announce the teams participating in the first two Monday Night Football contests of the 2022 season.
Before disclosing the matchups, GMA co-host T.J. Holmes asked the duo what the “free-agent process” was like. Buck and Aikman were, for decades, Fox’s top NFL broadcast team before making the high-profile jump to ESPN over the winter.
“It was stressful, no one has any sympathy for that,” Buck conceded. “It was interesting the way it all went down and I know I speak on Troy’s behalf — we could not be more excited about being at ESPN and doing Monday Night Football. I’m 53 and I grew up with Monday Night Football, and my dad [late legendary sportscaster Jack Buck] doing the radio two booths over and to be a part of this is pretty surreal.”
ESPN Monday Night Football will begin Week 2 this coming season (Sept. 19) as opposed to Week 1, with both ESPN and ABC carrying a game that night. ESPN will handle the early kickoff featuring two of the top teams in the AFC: The Tennessee Titans at the Buffalo Bills. That game kicks off at 7:15 p.m. ET. Then, at 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC will carry the Minnesota Vikings at the Philadelphia Eagles. Neither Buck nor Aikman revealed which game they would call, although Titans at Bills is, on paper, the more compelling matchup.
Buck and Aikman will be joined by Lisa Salters—who will continue her duties as Monday Night Football’s main sideline reporter—and John Parry will continue to be the officiating analyst this coming season.
As part of the network’s new agreement with the NFL, starting this fall, the number of games ESPN will broadcast each season will increase from 23. This includes an additional Monday Night Football game that will air exclusively on ABC—and an international game exclusive to ESPN’s streaming service ESPN+ (which the network announced last week – Denver vs. Jacksonville on Oct. 30 in London).
The full 2022 NFL schedule will be released on Thursday, May 12, at 8 p.m. ET on NFL Network.
Hall of Famers @TroyAikman and Joe @Buck to bring #MondayNightFootball to @ESPN! 🏈https://t.co/UoFUjPwSqo
— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 9, 2022