Troy Aikman was cited for roughing the sensibilities of football fans Monday night when the NFL commentator vented his opinion of the current craze of roughing the passer calls.
The recent concussion suffered by Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa when he was sacked was cited by some as a reason for a roughing the passer call that helped Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeat the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, according to WXIA-TV.
During Monday night’s game, Kansas City defensive tackle Chris Jones drew a flag for roughing the passer after sacking Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Derek Carr.
Aikman vented his concern about the call by saying, “My hope is that the competition committee looks at this in the next set of meetings and you know, we take the dresses off,” according to Sports Illustrated.
Piling on might be the most appropriate way to express how Twitter responded to the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback’s comments.
Troy Aikman really needs to find a non-misogynistic way to critique the call besides “take the dresses off”.
And I say this as someone who heard this misogyny normalized by coaches as a kid & even participated myself. Way past time to end such sports talkpic.twitter.com/lHVhv6WdEv
— ChuckModi (@ChuckModi1) October 11, 2022
don’t love aikman saying the players need to “take the dresses off,” just say the call sucks my man
— Trevor J. Mitchell (@TJM613) October 11, 2022
A truly awful call, but let’s not overlook Troy Aikman’s sexist comment: “My hope is the competition committee looks at this in the next set of meetings, and we take the dresses off.”
— Rachel Schallom Lobdell (@rschallom) October 11, 2022
In full agreement that the call against Chris Jones was BS, but did Troy Aikman just say that he hopes the competition committee “takes their dresses off?” As in trying to demean them by calling them women? Is he actually serious?
— Arielle Orsuto (@ArielleOrsuto) October 11, 2022
Did Troy Aikman really just say what I think he said?
Did he really just say that it’s time for the league to”take the dresses off”? The 60’s called, they want their chauvinist back.
Seriously @ESPN… do better than that crap.#MNF
— Jason Page (@TheBackPage) October 11, 2022
Some defended Aikman.
Just saw the mob is trying to ‘cancel’ Troy Aikman for saying the NFL needs to ‘take the dresses off.”
You idiots complaining about this are the main reason it needed to be said!
Football is a contact sport. Keep your powderpuff out of my football!
— 🙌 RogieRog 🙌 (@RogieRog) October 11, 2022
Every word Troy Aikman said on the broadcast is true and I hope league officials heard every word of it. This is the NFL, not some pee wee league. You can’t have calls like that changing the outcomes of these games. There’s just no excuse.
— NYG_PETE (@nyg_pete) October 11, 2022
Did my boy @TroyAikman just say “take the dresses off” yes!!! Finally someone with a voice said it!!
— Coach Jason Brown (@TheRealCoach_JB) October 11, 2022
A post on commentator Bill O’Reilly’s website mused, “The social media masses love to be outraged.”
“While the comment is a little dated, you’d think he called women a bad word if you were on Twitter. At least the poor sportswriters have something to write about,” the post added.
As of Tuesday evening, Aikman had not made any reply to the criticism. The Washington Examiner said it reached out to ESPN for a comment, but heard nothing back.
