If you ever watched a World Series and thought it sounded like Joe Buck was rooting against your team, you are not alone. Buck was making the rounds for ESPN Thursday morning to promote a new season of Monday Night Football. Keyshawn, JWill and Max began their final hour by debating if their new colleague was a better voice for Major League Baseball or for the NFL.
Buck joined them and explained that as a broadcaster for a national network, it is easier to call football than baseball.
“The NFL has local but that’s radio,” he said. “There is no local TV. Every game in baseball is on local TV and the announcers for each fan base is rooting and living and dying just like the fans are.”
Joe Buck said he sympathizes with fans. He has had moments as a fan himself when he wished familiar local voices could call his favorite team’s biggest moment.
“I get it. I experience that as a fan. I’m a fan of the St. Louis Blues, so when the Blues won the Stanley Cup and the national guys were doing it, I wanted my local guys doing it that I hear all year, that I know have the same rooting interest that I have.”
Max Kellerman asked Buck which sport he preferred to call. He answered that he had fond memories of both baseball and football, but only one of the NFL is where broadcasters make a bigger impact.
“I like both, but football is just so damn big. I mean, these games are so huge that you do a Super Bowl for 112 million people! There’s just nothing in television that compares to that.”
A new season of Monday Night Football begins on September 12 with Russell Wilson returning to Seattle as a member of the Denver Broncos. It will be the first game Joe Buck and Troy Aikman call for ESPN.
