Troy Aikman Responds to Criticism of Comments About Flyover at Bucs vs. Packers

Fox Sports' top NFL broadcasting duo, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, were caught on a hot mic before Sunday's game between the Green Bay Packers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers joking about a pregame flyover at the stadium. 

On Monday, Aikman tweeted about his remarks:

Per Aikman's stadium capacity remarks, the Buccaneers were allowed a maximum of 16,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium for Sunday's game. 

During the flyover, Aikman noted it was "a lot of jet fuel just to do a little flyover."

"That's your hard-earned money and your tax dollars at work!" Buck responded sarcastically.

"That stuff ain't happening with a [Kamala Harris and Joe Biden] ticket," Aikman added. "I'll tell you that right now, partner."

The fairly innocuous banter was met with some backlash, with even the Navy commenting on the matter.

"Flyovers are conducted at no additional cost to the taxpayer and serve as training and meet proficiency requirements for our pilots," Navy spokesman Lt. Rob Reinheimer told Allen Kim of CNN.

Flyovers do cost money, however, and per CNBC's Darren Rovell, WFAA reporter Byron Harris estimated that a flyover of four F-18 fighter jets before the Super Bowl in 2011 cost taxpayers $450,000 "based on the operational cost of the aircraft combined with the time it took the pilots, who flew from Virginia to Texas, to fly the mission. Harris provided the information given to him by the Air Force to CNBC." 

Multiply that by the number of games per year that have flyovers, and the cost becomes significant.

At the time, the deputy public affairs officer for the Naval Air Force's Atlantic division, Mike Maus, said the only cost before the Super Bowl was fuel, coming in at $109,000. He added that flyovers "are included in the annual operating budget of all branches of the military and they are used as training. There was no additional money provided to us, Congress did not cut us a special check to do this flyover. This is considered a training mission whether they were to fly over the Super Bowl or not."

There are obviously other conversations to have surrounding flyovers, from whether they are in fact the best use of the military's budget to if such acts—which serve as military recruiting tactics that professional sporting teams profit from—should be present before sports games. 

"I'm like all the other fans: A big plane goes overhead—'Wow!' That's kind of awe inspiring," retired Air Force lieutenant colonel Bill Astore told WBUR in 2018. "But at the same time, to me, it's not something that I see should be flying over a sports stadium before a baseball game or a football game. You know, these are weapons of death. They may be required, but they certainly shouldn't be celebrated and applauded."