Cowboys legend Troy Aikman reveals he nearly came out of retirement to join this AFC team in 2003

You have to move all of the long ago to the 2000 season to after we closing noticed Hall of Fame quarterback Troy Aikman on an NFL box. However, in an alternative universe, we could have had to simplest glance again to 2003. In a contemporary interview on ESPN’s “The Adam Schefter Podcast”, the Cowboys legend published that he nearly came out of retirement in 2003 to join the Miami Dolphins. 

“I had a chance initially and I was gonna do it quite honestly,” Aikman informed Schefter, as transcribed through 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.”

Aikman had familiarity with the Dolphins training personnel, specifically Turner, who was once the offensive coordinator for the quarterback in Dallas from 1991-93 after they gained consecutive Super Bowls. Meanwhile, Wannstedt was once the Cowboys defensive coordinator from 1989-92. 

“So, I was gonna do it,” Aikman mentioned of coming out of retirement. “I thought, ‘Well, I’ll give it a shot.’ Rick Spielman was the [senior vice president of football operations] 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. … They were not very good. It all worked out just fine.”

Miami, who began Jay Fiedler for the majority of the season, went 10-6 and completed 2nd in the AFC East in 2003, in the long run lacking the playoffs. While Aikman, who’s now the colour analyst for “Monday Night Football,” has loved a particularly fruitful post-playing profession, it will’ve been attention-grabbing to see what he can have completed with the Dolphins had he fixed a comeback. 

“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.” 

Aikman performed 12 seasons in the NFL, all of which came as a member of the Cowboys. He went 94-71 right through his profession in the common season and was once 11-4 in the playoffs, together with 3 Super Bowl titles.