I swear, Troy Aikman has announced every Cowboys game this year. It’s like FOX is begging Cowboy haters to cry out favoritism. However, as announcers ago, I find Aikman to be a rather impartial fellow, if a touch bland. Best of all, he’s not obnoxious about recalling his playing days even chance he gets, which is nice of him. This is why it was so surprising, during Sunday’s brutally lackluster 7-6 Cowboys win over the Skins, to hear Aikman goof on old teammate Deion Sanders for being a poor tackler. Aikman, and I’m paraphrasing here, said it was nice to see cover corners who also went in for tackles in the league today, unlike Deion back in the day.
Joe Buck: Are you saying Deion didn’t like tackling?
Troy Aikman: He used to call them “business decisions.”
Aikman, of course, isn’t telling you anything you didn’t already know. Deion Sanders liked contact about as much as I like the “Twilight” films. He was notorious for avoiding contact during his career. But he was so good at covering receivers that he could get away with it. That’s what will always astound me about Deion Sanders, he was so good at playing defense that he didn’t even need to TACKLE, which you would think is a necessary skill for any great defensive player. In fact, I watched the NFL Network’s postgame show to see if Sanders had a reaction to Aikman’s comments, and indeed he did. This is what Deion said:
“Hey, these shoulders are made for suits, not Brandon Jacobs.”
Fair point, Deion. My shoulders are made the exact same way.
