Troy Aikman

Troy Aikman's season as Fox's lead NFL analyst closed Jan. 22 with the NFC championship game won by the New York Giants over the San Francisco 49ers in overtime. Aikman, 45, has effectively taken over John Madden's spot on the football broadcast scene, dropping the coach's sound effects and inserting smart, concise insight based on his dozen years in the league and three Super Bowl titles as a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys who pored over game plans and had unique access to owner Jerry Jones' personnel decision making.

Former NFL quarterback Troy Aikman expressed concerns about the NFL's future Friday during a forum discussing “Is L.A. Ready for the NFL,” sponsored by Zócalo Public Square . Aikman, who is in the college football and NFL Halls of fame, was on a panel that included UCLA Coach Jim Mora, UCLA economist Lee Ohanian and Los Angeles Times' NFL columnist Sam Farmer. When the subject of concussions was brought up, Aikman said the league may be at a critical point in its history.

Former NFL quarterback Troy Aikman expressed concerns about the NFL's future Friday during a forum discussing “Is L.A. Ready for the NFL,” sponsored by Zócalo Public Square . Aikman, who is in the college football and NFL Halls of fame, was on a panel that included UCLA Coach Jim Mora, UCLA economist Lee Ohanian and Los Angeles Times' NFL columnist Sam Farmer. When the subject of concussions was brought up, Aikman said the league may be at a critical point in its history.

Troy Aikman's season as Fox's lead NFL analyst closed Jan. 22 with the NFC championship game won by the New York Giants over the San Francisco 49ers in overtime. Aikman, 45, has effectively taken over John Madden's spot on the football broadcast scene, dropping the coach's sound effects and inserting smart, concise insight based on his dozen years in the league and three Super Bowl titles as a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys who pored over game plans and had unique access to owner Jerry Jones' personnel decision making.

Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman will have to take some of the pressure off running back Emmitt Smith by picking apart the Pittsburgh defense, which was sixth-best against the pass in the NFL this season. A look at how Aikman and the Steeler secondary match up: Troy Aikman Statsistics: Completions-Attempts: 280-432 Comp. Perc.: 648 (Second in NFL) Yards: 3,304 (13th) Touchdowns: 16 (19th) Interceptions: 7 (Second) Rating: 93.6 (Third * Pittsburgh Defense: Passing yards: 3,240 Avg. per game: 202.

Troy Aikman, the starting quarterback for the University of Oklahoma last season before breaking his ankle, said Wednesday that he is transferring to UCLA. Aikman announced earlier this spring that he would not return to the national champion Sooners. He selected UCLA after visits there and at Arizona State. "I was leaning toward UCLA all along," Aikman said. He originally is from California but graduated from Henryetta High School.

The only way Lou Holtz knows how to coach is all out. That's why he couldn't speak much louder than a whisper Saturday evening after coaching a group of former Notre Dame players for three days as they practiced for an exhibition game in Japan. It's also a big reason why he was among 21 people enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame.

A future Hall of Fame quarterback donning the uniform of a bitter enemy and coming back to face his old team . . . Can you imagine? Troy Aikman can. Because it almost happened with him. Seven years ago -- back when Brett Favre was firmly entrenched as the leader of the Green Bay Packers -- Aikman, a Dallas Cowboys icon, almost came out of retirement to play for the hated Philadelphia Eagles. Aikman, now a Fox color analyst who will be in the booth for today's Vikings-Packers game, said nothing he can recall is quite like this homecoming.

Quarterback Mark Rypien went down with a sprained knee in the first half of Sunday's game against the Dallas Cowboys, leaving seldom-used Stan Humphries to run the Washington Redskins' offense. The Redskin defense, doing its part, sacked Dallas Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman eight times to lead the Redskins to a 19-15 victory, their first at home against Dallas since 1987. "Thank goodness for the defense," Washington Coach Joe Gibbs said. "They took it upon themselves and played great."

Troy Aikman didn't sleep much for about 2 weeks last November after UCLA's 17-13 loss to USC kept the favored Bruins out of the Rose Bowl. Too much on his mind. UCLA lost on the day Aikman turned 21, but the only things memorable for the UCLA quarterback on a milestone birthday were the frustration and disappointment. He has called it "probably the worst day of my life." Certainly, it was the worst of his 22 starts at UCLA.

Less than a day after his team's epic collapse Sunday ? blowing a three-touchdown lead to Philadelphia in the last half-quarter ? New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning called a rare players-only meeting to regroup his squad for a run at the playoffs. That starts with a huge game Sunday at Green Bay. The typically soft-spoken Manning (Eli doesn't have the commanding presence of his big brother, Peyton) didn't reveal to reporters what he said to his teammates, but explained it this way: "A lot of it is you just man up for your mistakes, you take responsibility, you put it behind you and you look forward to the situation.

A future Hall of Fame quarterback donning the uniform of a bitter enemy and coming back to face his old team . . . Can you imagine? Troy Aikman can. Because it almost happened with him. Seven years ago -- back when Brett Favre was firmly entrenched as the leader of the Green Bay Packers -- Aikman, a Dallas Cowboys icon, almost came out of retirement to play for the hated Philadelphia Eagles. Aikman, now a Fox color analyst who will be in the booth for today's Vikings-Packers game, said nothing he can recall is quite like this homecoming.

The only way Lou Holtz knows how to coach is all out. That's why he couldn't speak much louder than a whisper Saturday evening after coaching a group of former Notre Dame players for three days as they practiced for an exhibition game in Japan. It's also a big reason why he was among 21 people enshrined into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Jerry Crowe's July 3 item had BusterSports.Com's rankings of the best Pac-10 football coaches in history. Almost certainly that list was reached with some sort of hard data statistic. If so, we have the best example yet of Disraeli's quote: "There are lies, damn lies and statistics!" Any statistic that has Terry Donahue on the same page with Tommy Prothro is fallacious and irrelevant, so much so as to discredit the entire project. Donahue couldn't beat USC with Troy Aikman at quarterback and Ken Norton at linebacker.

More than 450 graduates are expected to pick up their sociology degrees in ceremonies Saturday at UCLA, but only one was inducted three years ago into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, owns three Super Bowl rings and is scheduled to be enshrined next month at the College Football Hall of Fame. . . . Congratulations, Troy Aikman. . . .

As a former Dallas Cowboy quarterback and current NFL television commentator, Troy Aikman has had much to say lately about his old team's preparations for the 2009 season. First off, Aikman thinks the Cowboys will be better off without Terrell Owens. "Thats fine," Owens said by way of response. "Troy, I think he has three Super Bowl rings, so he has the authority to say that. I've been called selfish pretty much throughout my career. I think I'm in good company.

Dallas Cowboy Coach Jimmy Johnson and his Philadelphia counterpart, Buddy Ryan, exchanged greetings before their Thanksgiving Day game at Texas Stadium. But after the Eagles shut out Dallas, 27-0, handing the Cowboys their worst loss in 22 Thanksgiving Day games, Johnson wasn't in the mood to wish Ryan a happy holiday. Instead, Johnson claimed Philadelphia had a bounty out on two of his players. "I have no respect for the way Philadelphia played the game," Johnson said.

In his most memorable play of Super Bowl XXVII, Troy Aikman took off from midfield, cut right and raced untouched toward the end zone. Halfway there, he stuck his right hand high into the air, pumped his elbow, waggled his index finger. And perhaps a new era was given its signature. As visions of Joe Montana thrusting his arms into the air had dominated the 1980s, Aikman's demonstrative run could become football's latest indelible image.

Troy Aikman took a little time Saturday morning to walk around the UCLA campus. The former Bruins quarterback looked at new facilities in the athletic department and talked to former coaches. Officially, Aikman returned to attend a halftime ceremony at UCLA's 89-63 basketball victory over Notre Dame -- the school honored him for his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame -- but he also talked about recently earning his degree in sociology. "This may sound corny," he said.

Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach know what it means to win -- they're in the NFL Hall of Fame -- and what it means to lose. It helps for them to know both, now that they're in the Nextel Cup Series. The two former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks, along with Bill Saunders, own Hall of Fame Racing, which got into NASCAR's premier series last year with the No. 96 Chevrolet.