Troy Aikman is a 3-time Super Bowl champion who played as a quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys between 1989 and 2000.
Aikman had an incredibly successful college football career, before thriving in the NFL, and eventually retiring and becoming a commentator on the sport.
During his 11 years with the Cowboys, Aikman won the Super Bowl 3 times, was named a Super Bowl MVP, and passed for 32,942 yards.
With the Super Bowl just around the corner – you can find the best Super Bowl odds here – we are looking back at the careers of some of the greatest Super Bowl players the NFL has ever seen.
Today, let’s look at the life and career of Troy Aikman,
The College Years
Aikman started his college career in Oklahoma. He played as the quarterback on their team. But he was awarded very little game time and put in quite a few poor performances for his team. Aikman’s ankle was broken in his final game for the team.
In 1986, Aikman transferred to UCLA. He did not play with them that year because of the NCAA’s transfer rules. When he arrived at UCLA he took the number #8 jersey, they would later retire this number.
However, in his first year playing for the Bruins, he won Pac-10 Offensive Player of the Year and his team won the Aloha Bowl. The Bruins ended with a win-loss ratio of 10-2 for the season.
That season he completed 178 passes for 2,527 yards and 17 touchdown passes. He also scored 2 rushing touchdowns that season.
Aikman and the Bruins went 10-2 again the next season and made it to the Cotton Bowl Classic. The head coach of the cowboys attended the match to watch Aikman play. They won that match 17-3.
In his second season, he completed 224 passes for 2,771 yards and 24 touchdown passes. He scored 1 rushing touchdown and made 87 rushing yards.
The NFL Years
Aikman was picked by the Cowboys in the 1989 Draft. He was picked first overall and was their starting quarterback that season.
Despite Aikman completing 155 of 293 passes for 1,749 yards, 9 touchdowns the Cowboys ended that season 0-11.
The next year the Cowboys picked Emmitt Smith in the 1990 Draft and he changed the team’s fortunes. He and Aikman played so well together, it was hard to believe that they had not been doing it for years. They ended the season on 7-7. That season Aikman injured himself in the final match and still managed to pass for 2,579 yards.
1991 was a middling year for Aikman and the Cowboys, however, they went on to do the double in 1992 and 1993. In both years Aikman passed for over 3000 yards, he did 3,445 in 1992 and 3100 yards in 1993.
Aikman was named Super Bowl MVP in the 1992 match. He ended that match with a pass completion percentage of 73.4%. Across all three Super Bowl matches, he had a pass completion percentage of 70.0% – this is an NFL record still.
Aikman and the Cowboys won a third Super Bowl in 1995. They made it to the playoffs with Aikman 3 times after that but never got very far.
Aikman retired in 2000 after suffering from a long-term back injury although he did not admit to this until 13 years later.
After the NFL
After leaving the NFL, Aikman has spent the last 2 decades working on various NFL commentary teams. He has spent the majority of his commentating career working with Fox News and is set to be involved in their coverage of the Super Bowl again this year.
Aikman had his own sports talk show on the radio in the mid-2010s, but stopped, to spend more time with his family. He has 2 daughters, 2 step-daughters, and a step-son.
