Troy Aikman thought he had left his NFL career in the past when he took up the job as the color commentator in the NFL in 2001. One year into his new role, the then-Philadelphia Eagles head coach and the current Kansas City Chiefs head coach, Andy Reid, called Aikman mid-show. Decades later, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback shared the interesting story.

Aikman talked about that phone call from 2002 on the April 14th episode of the New Heights Podcast. Reid wanted him to come out of retirement.

Aikman was in charge of a live Fox broadcast at the old Jack Murphy Stadium to cover the face-off between the Arizona Cardinals and the Eagles. After Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb broke his leg, Aikman was getting ready for halftime. That's when his producer, Richie Zion, asked him to call a number.

"He says, 'Hey, it's Andy.' And I said, 'Andy Reid?' He said, 'Yeah. You heard what happened? And I said, 'Yeah.' And he goes, 'Well, I want to talk to you. I said, 'Andy, I'm in the middle of a broadcast.'"

Once the game ended, Aikman called Reid to know what he wanted to talk about.

"I called him after the game, and he was selling me on why I should come out of retirement and go sign with the Eagles," Aikman said.

When a coach loses their starter in the middle of a run, they have to think outside the box, and Aikman was the first option that came to Reid's mind. He made history as the Cowboys’ first rookie quarterback to open a season since Roger Staubach in 1969.

By the time he retired, Aikman had racked up 90 wins in the 1990s, the most by any starting quarterback in a single decade in NFL history at that point.

But he stood firm and did not answer to Reid's call. Ty Detmer, the backup, went down the next week, and A.J. Feeley took over. McNabb came back, and the Eagles made it to the NFC Championship, proving Reid's system without needing a Hall of Fame player.

This shows that even after he retired, his name was strong enough to get one of the best coaches in the NFL to call him up.

Andy Reid almost came out of retirement in 2003

After wrapping up his 11-year journey with the Cowboys, Aikman focused on broadcasting. Even though he successfully dodged Reid's proposal, he revealed he had almost returned to the league in 2003 to join the Miami Dolphins.

"I had a chance initially, and I was gonna do it quite honestly," Aikman told Schefter in an interview in 2023. "I was gonna come back, and the Dolphins were looking at me."

Aikman already had strong ties to the Miami Dolphins coaching staff, especially Norv Turner, who served as his offensive coordinator in Dallas from 1991 to 1993 during the team’s back-to-back Super Bowl runs.

Dave Wannstedt added another Dallas connection, having led the Cowboys’ defense from 1989-92.

Miami, with Jay Fiedler at the helm for most of the year, went 10-6 in 2003 and secured second place in the AFC East. However, it was not enough to reach the postseason.

"As you know, these network jobs like this, they're hard to come by," Aikman added. "It's something that never happened. I'm glad it didn't."

So Aikman's comeback plan did not materialize.

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Written by

Abhay Bharti

Edited by

Soheli Tarafdar