Fox NFL analyst Troy Aikman in a Q&A with SI's Richard Deitsch said he "just wrapped up the last year" of his contract and has "essentially agreed to terms" with the net on a new one. Aikman: "The contract has not been signed yet but I think it is a matter of just cleaning up a couple of things and then it will be signed." He said of how his broadcasting work gets reviewed: "Fox began a few years ago using an anonymous person to evaluate each broadcast. We also get a report each week -- things they liked, things they did not like, things they felt I could have added. Or this was a great anecdote, things like that. It is helpful. ... In this business, it just seems like really more opinion than anything else. One is only as good as what people think. There is no real measuring stick as there is in athletics. That part of it is frustrating for all us who played competitively and then have gotten into television." Aikman, 48, said he sees himself broadcasting for "another 10 to 15 years or so" (SI.com, 1/14).
THE DEPARTED: In Boston, Chad Finn cites sources as saying that that after the Super Bowl, WBZ-FM radio show co-host Andy Gresh "will no longer be part of the midday program." Gresh, whose contract option "was picked up by the station and parent company CBS Boston last January, will not receive a new contract and will leave the station." Gresh and co-host Scott Zolak in April '10 had "reunited in the middays" on WBZ-FM. Meanwhile, longtime WEEI host Dale Arnold has a new "multiyear deal to remain with the program" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/16).
WHAT ABOUT BOB? NBC's Bob Costas said, “If there is a Boston Olympics in 2024, I’m looking forward to watching whoever hosts it from the comfort of my own barcalounger. But it won't be because it’s in Boston. It’ll be because it’s 2024. When NBC got every Olympics until 2032 I got a bunch of texts saying congratulations. My reaction was in 2032 I will be 80. Only Vin Scully gets to do big-deal stuff after the age of 80” (“Olbermann,” ESPN2, 1/14).
CARRYING THE TORCH: SEC Network on Thursday announced the hiring of five former U.S. Olympic gymnasts -- Kathy Johnson Clarke ('84), Bart Conner ('84), Courtney Kupets ('14), John Roethlisberger ('92, '96, '00) and Alicia Sacramone-Quinn ('08) -- as part of a 10-person commentating pool for ESPN and SEC Net’s coverage of SEC Gymnastics (ESPN).
