Troy Aikman fights back tears on Monday Night Football as ESPN honors late spotter David Moulton

For a few moments on Monday night, the Cowboys-Eagles game at Lincoln Financial Field took a back seat. During ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast, Troy Aikman became visibly emotional as he and play-by-play partner Joe Buck paid tribute to David Moulton, the spotter who had worked at Aikman’s side in the booth since 2018.

Moulton died after a six-year battle with stage four renal cell cancer, his wife, Julie, announced on Saturday, Oct. 24.

What happened in the booth

ESPN aired a clip from a 2022 game in which Moulton wore a Sulley costume from Monsters, Inc. in the booth. Accounts differ slightly on timing: USA Today placed the tribute in the third quarter, while Sports Illustrated said it came in the fourth.

“Well, this group lost a dear friend and coworker this week,” Buck said, according to the New York Post. Buck described Moulton as his “right hand man” for years on Fox golf coverage and Aikman’s “right hand man for all these years in the booth doing NFL coverage,” and said Moulton was “brilliant and just effortless” in the way he delivered information.

When Buck said Moulton “will not be replaced in this booth,” Aikman choked up. “No he will not,” Aikman replied, as reported by USA Today. Aikman went on to say Moulton “left a hole in a lot of people’s hearts” and was “just a good man.”

The moment spread quickly online after the broadcast, with clips of Aikman’s reaction drawing wide attention from fans of both teams.

Who was David Moulton?

Moulton was far more than a name in the credits. According to Yahoo Sports:

• NFL booth: He joined Aikman and Buck on Fox’s Sunday NFL coverage in 2018, added Thursday Night Football the following season and stood at Aikman’s right shoulder during games, later also talking to him through a headset.
• Golf: Before that, he worked alongside Buck on Fox’s golf coverage, which is how he came to be recommended for the NFL booth.
• College football: He was Gary Danielson’s researcher and spotter on CBS’s SEC coverage starting in 2006.
• Radio and local media: He co-hosted Miller and Moulton in southwest Florida for roughly 20 years until stepping away this past summer to focus on his health, and was also the voice of Florida Gulf Coast University athletics.

Reports differ on his age. Buck said on air that Moulton “passed away at the age of 60,” while Sports Illustrated and Yahoo Sports reported he was 59.

Aikman’s earlier tribute

Before Monday’s broadcast, Aikman had posted a tribute on Instagram. “Since 2018, David Moulton has been my right-hand man in the broadcast booth,” he wrote, adding that Moulton was “loyal, dependable and a warrior until the very end. He deserved better.”

Buck also sent his best wishes on air to Moulton’s wife, Julie, his daughter, Melissa, her husband, Sean, and their two children.

What a spotter does

Spotters rarely appear on camera, but they shape what viewers hear. Yahoo Sports, citing a 2020 profile in The Ringer, described Moulton passing along practical information, like how many timeouts each team had left, while also tracking key matchups and raising the kinds of questions fans at home might ask. That behind-the-scenes role is why Buck said the booth would not try to replace him.

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