Aikman - by Jean-Jacques Taylor (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The first ever biography of three-time Super Bowl winner and Monday Night Football announcer Troy Aikman, from sports journalist Jean-Jacques Taylor, exploring the wins, sacrifices, complex relationships, and quest for perfection that lined his path from champion quarterback to legacy sportscaster.

To say Troy Aikman has had an enviable career is quite the understatement. Once dubbed "God's quarterback," he was the first QB to win three Super Bowls in four seasons. His independent beer company had the most successful launch in Texas history. His unconventional and treasured 25-year partnership with co-announcer Joe Buck has outlasted even the most famous analysts.

But Aikman is more complex than the convivial demeanor he shares on Monday Night Football. Forged by a demanding father who treated him like a grown man before he lost his baby teeth, Aikman has spent his life striving to be the perfect quarterback. The perfect broadcaster. The perfect friend. The perfect husband. The perfect father. The perfect businessman. He's notoriously demanding, and he holds other people accountable to achieve the perfection he craves.

Yet the traits that have made Aikman wildly successful have robbed him of the one thing he desires most: a family. By his own admission, his two divorces are the biggest failures in his life and bring him shame. He's turned to faith, meditation, and forgiveness in recent years, in an effort to chase perfection but not be consumed by it.

Longtime Dallas Cowboys reporter Jean-Jacques Taylor looks at Aikman not just as a champion, entrepreneur, or TV star, but as a complicated and sometimes contradictory model of achievement. Taylor dives deep into Aikman's knotty family dynamics; his long-term, rich partnerships with fellow Cowboys like Jimmy Johnson, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin; broadcast colleagues like Erin Andrews; and the internal strife that created a litany of dysfunctional relationships with NFL owners and even ex-wives. With industry knowledge and intimate access, Taylor unveils a new kind of portrait of an American sports hero, challenging what we know about football, ambition, and the very definition of success.