Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and Fox Sports football analyst Troy Aikman said he was only kidding with TMZ when he told its videographers he would be a contestant on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."
TMZ caught Aikman as he was leaving Red O restaurant in Los Angeles Wednesday night.
Yes, after TMZ.com posted on its site early Thursday morning that he would be doing the show, Aikman did send out a message via Twitter saying he would not be on the show because it "interferes with 'American Idol' auditions."
But he never had any plans to do the show, whether it conflicted with Fox's "Idol" or not, so there was no change of heart, as some have reported based on his tweet.
An individual at Fox told TheWrap that Aikman told Fox officials he was not serious when a TMZ videographer asked him, "Will you be doing 'Dancing With the Stars' any time soon?" and he answered, "Yeah, next year."
TMZ initially reported, "Legendary QB Troy Aikman told us last night that he's officially on board for the next season of 'Dancing With the Stars.'"
But even TMZ was skeptical, saying in its original report: "It's pretty unusual for a celeb to spill the beans before ABC makes its official announcement … so if he was being serious, there might be some hell to pay down the line."
TMZ staffers should have gone with their instincts and checked it out first. They did try to do that through ABC, but posted the item before they heard back from the network.
Then again, why would they have reason to think Aikman was joking? He said it with a pretty straight face and they had him on tape.
