ESPN’s Troy Aikman admitted his ‘take the dresses off’ comment on ‘MNF’ was ‘dumb’
ESPN “Monday Night Football” analyst Troy Aikman said Thursday that he shouldn’t have made the misogynistic comment that he did during the Kansas City Chiefs’ win over the Las Vegas Raiders earlier this week.
Aikman, who said the NFL should “take the dresses off” after a controversial roughing the passer penalty in the first half, admitted on 1310 The Ticket in Dallas that the comment was “dumb.”
“Yeah, I mean, my comments were dumb. Just shouldn’t have made them, just dumb remarks on my part,” Aikman said on the radio, via The Dallas Morning News.
Aikman, just before halftime of the Chiefs’ 30-29 win over the Raiders, took issue with a roughing the passer penalty against Kansas City defensive lineman Chris Jones. He was far from alone in his criticism of the penalty, which negated a turnover and sent fans at Arrowhead Stadium into a frenzy.
Yet right before play resumed, Aikman made a sexist comment when referring to the penalty.
Troy Aikman: "My hope is the [NFL] Competition Committee looks at this in the next set of meetings, and you know, we take the dresses off." pic.twitter.com/5DqdLJ8Ccx
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 11, 2022
“I hope that the competition committee looks at this during the set of meetings and we take the dresses off,” he said on the broadcast.
That sexist trope has drawn plenty of backlash since. As there are plenty of other ways the Hall of Famer could have made his point, it’s easy to understand why.
Aikman, who is in his first season with ESPN after moving from Fox with Joe Buck for “Monday Night Football,” continued on the radio on Thursday about the penalty itself — which was actually one of two seen last weekend.
The former Dallas Cowboys quarterback insisted that while he still wants quarterbacks protected in the game, it still has to make sense.
“But the other part of ... what came from that, what I said was that it implied that I’m not in favor of protecting the quarterbacks, which could not be further from the truth,” Aikman said on the radio, via The Dallas Morning News. “I’m totally in favor of the protection that the quarterbacks are afforded, and all players for that matter. But there’s no question there has been over-enforcement of the protection for quarterbacks … It’s a thankless job that [officials are] in, and I don’t fault the officials so much.
“I do think we’re, as I said, I think we’re over-officiating it. But these are the rules. I mean, as the rule reads and if you watch that in real time, it would be hard to look at that play with Chris Jones in our game and not feel like he landed on the quarterback with his body weight, you know? I would imagine that there’s been enough outcry about it that I would think that the powers that be will take a hard look at it this offseason, and see if maybe they can correct it.”
