Joe Buck’s future with ESPN is confirmed, but his partner Troy Aikman is still waiting for his to be decided. Buck reportedly agreed a $108 million extension to remain at the network through 2031. Buck is lobbying for Aikman’s contract extension stalemate to endGettyBut the 57-year-old has made his intentions clear that he doesn’t want to be alongside anyone else in the booth if it isn’t Aikman, whose ESPN contract expires at the end of the 2026 NFL season. “I’m pretty well on record, having begged out of my last years at Fox to follow him to ESPN, where I stand on all that,” Buck said in a recent appearance on 97.5 The Fanatic.“I legitimately love the guy like a brother. We’re basically the same age; I’m 57, he’s 59. We’ve both been through divorce. We’re both girl dads. “Twenty-five years, you’re sharing a lot of life together. Forget games and in the booth and all that stuff.“So, I hope so. I mean, both of us were up. It wasn’t like we were doing some national signing day where we walk in arm-in-arm and then sign contracts at the same time,” Buck continued. “We’ve always kind of kept that stuff separate. I’m obviously hopeful, to say the least, that something gets done. “But that’s kind of his world, and ESPN’s world, and I’ve got to kind of mind my own yard in that stuff. I think that’s the best way to be.”The pair have been partners in the booth for over 25 years, and it seems unthinkable that after making a huge financial splash to pry them both away from FOX Sports in 2022, that they would be willing to let Aikman walk.Furthermore, having failed to yet present a new deal to the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback is quite the gamble from ESPN, especially with major competitors, including CBS and streaming service Amazon potentially waiting in the wings. This comes amid the uncertainty of other NFL talent, including Kirk Herbstreit, as his contract at Amazon is also up in 2027, while CBS may yet have an additional opening with Tony Romo’s future uncertain following his arrest for OWI. ESPN has yet to offer Aikman an extensionGettyBuck and Aikman have been inseparable for 25 yearsGettyAikman still wants to work with BuckAmid his contract stalemate, Aikman has also made it clear that he would love to continue working with Buck, revealing earlier in September that he thought an extension offer would have come his way by now. “I thought something would be done prior to the start of this season,” Aikman said via Sports Media Watch. “I’ve never gone into the last year of a contract ever since I signed with the Dallas Cowboys.“And so I thought that it would be done. It’s not. When it might get done, if it gets done, is anyone’s guess. And it’s really not something that I’m putting a lot of energy into.”“How much of that is my decision, I guess is yet to be determined,” Aikman added. “Would I like to continue working with Joe Buck moving down the road? 100%.”“I came over in 2022 in large part to kind of help mend the relationship with ESPN and the NFL,” he explained, with the network having purchased NFL Media earlier this year, which gave the league a 10 percent stake in ESPN. “I feel like the reason that I was brought over, I fulfilled whatever obligations they were expecting from me.“So much so that … the league now owns 10 percent of the network. So I would say the fence has been mended.”If this is to be the end of the Buck-Aikman partnership, though, at least they will go out on a high, with ESPN set to broadcast its first ever Super Bowl this season. Join talkSPORT’s dedicated US Sports YouTube channel The S* Word every Tuesday and Thursday for our brand new NFL shows.On Tuesdays, Will Gavin and US senior reporter Brian T. Smith will debate the biggest talking points from the NFL weekend, while on Thursdays Efe Obada joins the crew to talk to players past and present and break down what to look for across the league.