One particular moment during ESPN’s Dec. 11 telecast of the New York Giants-Green Bay Packers showed why Monday Night Football has once again become must-see TV. Just before halftime, NFL referees dawdled over an easy call. Other announcers might have excused the zebras during a season when officiating seems broken. Not Troy Aikman.

“Just make a call, you know? I mean, there’s 13 seconds in the half. Just make a decision,” said the three-time Super Bowl winner with the Dallas Cowboys. “This is what stops all these games. The officials, I know they’ve been talked about every week. But this is ridiculous, what we’re watching right now. We see something, it takes five seconds—it takes them five minutes.”

The NFL brass probably hated it. But it was classic Aikman: incisive and authoritative, with an eye toward the viewer.