Troy Aikman was relatively young when he retired from playing in the NFL, but several teams tried to lure him out of retirement after his final season with the Dallas Cowboys. Aikman says one of those teams was almost successful.
During a recent interview with “The Adam Schefter Podcast” that was released on Tuesday, Aikman revealed that he was close to coming out of retirement in 2003 to play for the Miami Dolphins. The Hall of Fame quarterback said he was prepared to play but the Dolphins ultimately decided not to sign him.
“I had a chance initially and I was gonna do it quite honestly,” Aikman said, as transcribed by Sam Neumann of Awful Announcing. “I was gonna come back and the Dolphins were looking at me. Dave Wannstedt was the head coach. Norv Turner was the offensive coordinator. I had trained that offseason, prepared to come back and play. And they felt like they were a quarterback away from achieving what they wanted to do.”
Turner was the offensive coordinator with the Cowboys from 1991-1993, during which the team won two Super Bowls. Aikman has also said in the past that he had an interest in playing for the then-San Diego Chargers after the Cowboys waived him in 2001. Turner was the head coach of the Chargers at the time.
Aikman said he had made up his mind to come out of retirement and play for Miami, but the team chose to go in a different direction.
“I thought, ‘Well, I’ll give it a shot.’ Rick Speilman was the general manager and he ultimately was the one, I believe, that decided not to sign me, which was probably a good thing from their perspective. And it was a great thing from my perspective because they weren’t a quarterback away. I think they won six games that year. They were not very good. It all worked out just fine.”
Aikman’s memory of how things turned out seems a bit foggy. The Dolphins went 10-6 in 2003 with Jay Fiedler as their starting quarterback, though they missed the playoffs. They won four games the following season in 2004, which may have been what Aikman was thinking of.
Either way, it worked out for Aikman. He continued to work for FOX and enjoyed a successful run alongside Joe Buck, who is still his partner. The two now call “Monday Night Football” games for ESPN.
Aside from his former team making him look bad on the air, Aikman has done quite well for himself since the Dolphins turned him down.