Troy Aikman, Miami Dolphins
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(Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images,)
The Miami Dolphins are in the midst of a rebuild. Alongside new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan, they can also lean on former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman, who is serving as a team consultant.
Aikman will provide his expertise to help the Dolphins make informed decisions on key moves. While there’s controversy surrounding the former QB’s involvement with Miami being an NFL color analyst for ESPN, the Cowboys are being called out for not doing what Miami did to hire Aikman.
On the April 6 edition of “First Take,” Stephen A. Smith didn’t hold back on Cowboys owner Jerry Jones for having Aikman take a consulting position with the Dolphins.
“This is one of your own,” Smith said. “If you’re Jerry Jones, it’s not just his family; Jerry Jones considers members of the Dallas Cowboys an extended family. If this applies to anybody, it would be Troy Aikman, who is a brilliant football mind.
“We are incredibly lucky to have him. And if you’re Jerry Jones, damn, it’s one of your own. When you turn on the TV, where do you not see Troy Aikman? How could you let him go to the Miami Dolphins?
“… You don’t let somebody the stature of Troy Aikman get away to the Miami Dolphins, and he’s on a damn podcast. The bottom line is you look at Troy Aikman — you don’t let somebody like him go on a podcast and say, ‘Dallas never asked me to. Dallas never called me to.’ I know he still lives in the area. He isn’t hard to find. Come on now, you don’t make that mistake.”
Former NFL Player Calls Out Cowboys Over Troy Aikman
In a March 31 video from DLLS Cowboys, Aikman said the Cowboys have never contacted him about serving as a consultant.
“I mean, as a consultant, Will McClay doesn’t get to do it in Dallas, and he’s been there a long time,” Aikman said. “… The Cowboys have never elected to do that, at least with me. Maybe they have with others.”
As a result, like Smith, former Cowboys wideout Jesse Holley is not happy to hear Aikman say that Dallas has never used him as a resource.
“To hear out of [Aikman’s] mouth that I am rooting for the Dolphins, pulling for the Dolphins, and then saying that they didn’t even care to consult me, ask about my ideas, bring me into the fold, or give me a seat at the table so I could share some of the thought processes I have and the people I know is frustrating,”Holley said in a March 31 video from DLLS Cowboys.
“Helping in whatever process the Cowboys are pursuing in the front office is also important, yet we know that Jerry [Jones] is asking and consulting a bunch of other people he probably should not. To leave out Troy, to me, is the highest level of malpractice in front office general managing, whatever you want to call it. That is another small indicator of why this thing has gone so wrong in the last 30 years.”
Troy Aikman Explains Dolphins Consulting Job
Moreover, Aikman explained why Miami reached out to him to serve as a consultant as the team enters Year 1 of its rebuild.
“I think the Dolphins were wise in understanding my relationships around the league and knowing that I have information that they don’t have or can’t get,” Aikman said. “And I think they were smart in taking advantage of that, whether it was through me or through somebody else.”