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He’s no Dandy Don, but will Troy Aikman be the next Cowboys QB to pick up the ‘Monday Night’ mantle?

Per reports, Aikman looks to follow in the footsteps of another Cowboys great (and get paid like Tony Romo).

The New York Post reports that Troy Aikman will leave Fox for ESPN and move to Monday nights, elevating his per annum just beyond Tony Romo’s 10-year, $180 million bonanza at CBS. Dak Prescott will tell you it’s good to be a quarterback for the Cowboys, but sometimes it’s better to be a former Cowboys quarterback. The hourly rate is better, and you don’t wake up on sidelines.

No one knew the gist of the above better than Don Meredith, the OC, or Original Cowboy. He not only made himself bigger in the booth than he was on the field, he helped create a monster on Mondays.

Maybe another Cowboys quarterback is exactly what the Monday Night Football franchise needs. Aikman will have his work cut out for him matching the impact of the first one.

Projecting Dandy Don’s success behind a microphone wasn’t exactly calculus. Long before he suited up next to Howard Cosell, Meredith proved cool under pressure. Like the time the approach on landing turned rocky and an announcement from the cockpit warned passengers to hold on tight.

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As Meredith’s seatmate, D.D. Lewis, grabbed Dandy’s arm, Jeff and Hazel’s baby boy did his best to put the linebacker at ease.

“Aw, hell, D.D.,” he said, “it’s been a good ‘un.”

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Personal favorite: He chose SMU because it was easy to spell.

The mere hint of Meredith’s soft Texas drawl provokes a smile. Teamed with the combative Cosell and down-the-middle Frank Gifford they turned Monday night into must-see TV and helped the NFL eclipse MLB at last as the biggest draw in televised sports.

And, like “Saturday Night Live,” another child of the ‘70s, their star power created a standard virtually impossible for every cast since.

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Roone Arledge was out to create an event every Monday night, and he succeeded wildly. You never knew what Meredith or Cosell might say next. Like the time the Oilers were being wrung out at the Astrodome, and the camera found a disgusted fan who, on cue, flipped the bird. Meredith happily explained he was just calling the home team “No. 1 in the nation.”

Meredith was quick on his feet, but not always quick enough. Once, Cosell, ill and maybe a little oiled, threw up on Dandy’s boots.

“Howard is leaving us,” Meredith said as his partner was helped from the booth.

“Something just came up.”

You could say Meredith occasionally flouted authority figures. His trials with Tom Landry are well-documented. On air, he once called the President of the United States “Tricky Dick.” If that hardly sounds scandalous, realize it was a time long before a U.S. president would make nicknames political fodder.

Anyway, upon meeting Spiro Agnew in the booth, Meredith supposedly said, “I didn’t vote for you, but you do have a nice suit on.”

Introducing a game in Denver, he said, “Welcome to Mile High Stadium . . . and I really am.”

“If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas,” is actually a variation on a 17th century nursery rhyme, but try telling that to anyone who grew up on Monday nights.

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Even if you know little about Meredith’s broadcasting legacy, maybe you know he signaled the effective end of a contest by warbling the opening lines of a song from a Texas singer who’d first performed it at the Esquire Ballroom in Houston.

Turn out the lights, the party’s over

They say that all good things must end

Turn out the lights, the party’s over,

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And tomorrow starts the same old thing again.

Of course, it wasn’t all candy and nuts. Meredith, as Landry complained, relied on talent more than preparation. Cosell finally said something he shouldn’t have. Their second stint together, after Meredith left for NBC from 1974-76, seemed stale in comparison.

First ABC and then ESPN tried to recapture the old magic, but the NFL has made it nearly impossible. By the early 2000s, the league decided its best games should be on Sunday night, not Monday. Flex scheduling, starting in 2006, gave Sunday nights a better pool to pick from and the league put its top TV talent in charge of it.

Now that ESPN can flex a handful of games for Mondays, the inventory is better, making it an attractive option for the likes of Aikman. That and $90 million.

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Another former Cowboys quarterback now picks up the mantle. As entertainment goes, Troy is no Dandy, but then, who is? We still quote Meredith nearly 50 years later. On Tuesday morning, you can’t remember anything anyone said the night before. Just as well, probably. The lesson learned from Meredith, Cosell and Gifford is that the talent and times made it one of a kind. Not to be duplicated. No sense trying, anyway. Like Shakespeare said, or maybe Lombardi, the game’s the thing.

Of today’s analysts, only Cris Collinsworth may be better than Aikman. Romo is all the rage, I know. Amazing powers of prediction. But there’s more to analysis than beating the quarterback to the snap, as Romo is learning. Aikman has gravitas. Three Lombardi Trophies can do that for you.

The question is, who’ll be his partner? Al Michaels, who’s always wanted to work with Troy and might enjoy a return to his Monday night roots? Joe Buck, who still has a year left on his Fox deal?

What if Sean Payton commits to TV?

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What if he likes it? You could see why he would. The money’s great, and the hours are short. Just the same, I had other plans for him.

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