Former Dallas Cowboys star quarterback Troy Aikman recently revealed that he almost joined the Miami Dolphins back in 2003.
“I had a chance initially, and I was gonna do it quite honestly,” Aikman said on “The Adam Schefter Podcast.” “I was gonna come back, and the Dolphins were looking at me. Dave Wannstedt was the head coach. Norv Turner was the offensive coordinator. I had trained that offseason, prepared to come back and play. And they felt like they were a quarterback away from achieving what they wanted to do.
“So, I was gonna do it. I thought, ‘Well, I’ll give it a shot.’ Rick Speilman was the general manager, and he ultimately was the one, I believe, that decided not to sign me, which was probably a good thing from their perspective. And it was a great thing from my perspective because they weren’t a quarterback away. I think they won six games that year. They were not very good. It all worked out just fine.”
Aikman, 56, was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1989 NFL Draft after four seasons of college football — two at the University of Oklahoma and two more at the University of California, Los Angeles. It wasn’t until his final two seasons of college football, when he was a member of UCLA, that he established himself as a college football star. Aikman threw for 2,300-plus yards and 16-plus passing touchdowns in each of his two seasons as a Bruin.
The 6-foot-4 quarterback played 12 seasons in the NFL, all as a member of the Cowboys franchise. He threw for 32,492 yards and 165 touchdowns in 165 total regular-season games played during his pro career (all starts).
Aikman accomplished a whole lot during his NFL career, both from an individual and collective standpoint. He made six Pro Bowl appearances and led the league in completion percentage once as a Cowboy.
But most importantly, Aikman led the Cowboys to three Super Bowl victories in 1993, 1994 and 1996. His first Super Bowl victory in 1993 came against the Buffalo Bills. Aikman completed 22 of his 30 pass attempts and threw for four touchdowns in the game, and the Cowboys won by a final score of 52-17. Those numbers were good enough for the quarterback to earn Super Bowl MVP honors.
In the following year, Aikman and the Cowboys once again beat the Bills in the Super Bowl. He threw for 207 yards, and Dallas once again won comfortably as the Cowboys beat the Bills 30-13.
In his third and final Super Bowl appearance in 1996, Aikman led the Cowboys to win over a different foe this time, the Pittsburgh Steelers. This game was the most tightly contested of Aikman’s Super Bowl victories, as the Cowboys won by just 10 points. Aikman completed 15 of his 23 pass attempts and threw for one touchdown in the victory.
For as great as Aikman was during his NFL career, he had already been retired for a few seasons by the time the year 2003 rolled around. So it’s unlikely that he would have been able to lead the Dolphins to a Super Bowl victory like he did with the Cowboys on several occasions.
