Kelly the Dog Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I disagree. Buck is completely out of his league as Fox's #1 announcer. Compare him to Al Michaels, Jim Nantz, or even Mike Tirico. Sure, Michaels is a jerk that's full of himself, but he's very good at what he does. Nantz is a Patriots* homer, but again, he has a good voice and calls the action well. Tirico has a good rapport with Jaws and Gruden, and since MNF has put the focus back on X's and O's, it's actually a really enjoyable broadcast to watch. Buck, on the other hand, has a voice that is almost a perfect monotone, only changing volume rather than pitch. His personality is as awful as Al Michaels'. I don't see him as a homer for one particular team, but he definitely injects a lot more negative opinion into his broadcasts than most. This guy was hired by Fox at age 25 with little experience other than announcing 2 seasons of Cardinals baseball with his dad. While I can't say with 100% certainty that Fox has him in that slot because of his father (or because he knows someone), there are only a few limited conclusions I can draw given his near universal dislike amongst MLB and NFL fans. To me, those are the two most likely. His father mostly worked for CBS, and worked for the other two national sports divisions NBC and ABC but never FOX. I don't like Joe Buck one bit but a lot of people do, as evidenced by HBO hiring him to replace the Costas Now show 9even though it sucked). Joe Buck also spent four years as a regional play by play guy, he didn't automatically get the head job without any experience, he'd been a play by play announcer on a major network for eight years. The point is, it's a huge job at a different network. Whomever decides who is the head play by play guy is not going to give it to a guy with no talent that no one likes just because his father was a legend at an arch rival network. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sullim4 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 His father mostly worked for CBS, and worked for the other two national sports divisions NBC and ABC but never FOX. I don't like Joe Buck one bit but a lot of people do, as evidenced by HBO hiring him to replace the Costas Now show 9even though it sucked). Joe Buck also spent four years as a regional play by play guy, he didn't automatically get the head job without any experience, he'd been a play by play announcer on a major network for eight years. The point is, it's a huge job at a different network. Whomever decides who is the head play by play guy is not going to give it to a guy with no talent that no one likes just because his father was a legend at an arch rival network. Actually the CBS point is an interesting one. In 1994, when FOX intially got the NFL rights, they grabbed almost everyone they could from CBS that did NFL work. Bradshaw, Summerall, Madden, Millen, and Stockton all did NFL work for CBS and were brought over to Fox. Buck started on the "D" team with Tim Green in 1994. Also recall that McCarver, who did work for CBS (with Jack Buck, incidently), came to Fox in 1996. He likely had a say in who he was going to work with. In fact, Buck didn't even announce a single football game for FOX in 1998, 1999, and 2000. In 2001, he was on the "E" team with Baldinger. The next season, he got promoted to the "A" team once Madden and Summerall were finished. Buck likely got the job by default in 2002 because he was the lead MLB announcer, and they wanted consistency across their brand. If it was strictly due to his performance, I would literally be shocked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelly the Dog Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 In fact, Buck didn't even announce a single football game for FOX in 1998, 1999, and 2000. In 2001, he was on the "E" team with Baldinger. The next season, he got promoted to the "A" team once Madden and Summerall were finished. Buck likely got the job by default in 2002 because he was the lead MLB announcer, and they wanted consistency across their brand. If it was strictly due to his performance, I would literally be shocked. The "consistency across their brand" could easily have been the reason. He could be hired as "the best man for the job" and still not be the best play by play guy. But he wasn't given the top football job because his father was a legendary CBS announcer. I liked Jack Buck a lot. The son, not so much. Although I have always thought that both play-by-play as well as analyst is an extremely tough job, especially in football, which is why few serious fans like more than one or two of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooper Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 J.Buck=reason T.Aikman is getting divorced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddogblitz Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I liked Jack Buck a lot. The son, not so much. I used to like to listen to Jack Buck and I'm thinking it was Hank Stramm do the Monday Night Football games on radio. I don't like Joe Buck at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. Rich Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 People piss and moan about the announcers, regardless of who it is. It is the cool thing to do to be a negative prick about everything. It is easy to just say everything sucked, and sheep like nothing more than a good pile on. The announcers are usually one of the easier targets. They have to talk the entire game, and football announcers are not familiar with the particular teams on the level a baseball/hockey announcer is. I would love to hear one the !@#$s that pisses and moans about he announcers to call a Seahawks/Panthers game, or two teams that they don't necessarily follow. They would be tongue tied and crying in ten minutes. Yep. I like Joe Buck.. well I'm probably just a biased cardinal fan. Hes better than Gus Johnson at least. I like Joe Buck's sense of humor, but not necessarily from his broadcasts. I've heard him do interviews on various talk shows and he's pretty funny in that capacity. Gus has plenty of fans who love his over the top screaming. I am not one of 'em. I don't equate screaming as being a good broadcaster. If that was the case, someone should've given Jerry Stiller, Jason Alexander, and the rest of the Screamfeld cast a job in the booth of an NFL game years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skibum Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Nepotism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPicc2114 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 If Joe Buck had a voice that was like say... JP Losman.. trust me he woudn't be doing play by play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KD in CA Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 Using just the final Pittsburgh offensive play last night as an example...Aikman and Buck both initially thought the GB defender interferred with Wallace. Yet, when the saw the review both corrected themselves. In that situation many many many announcers continue their original thought and are unwilling to admit that their eyes deceived them. THAT drives me nuts about announcers. Those two at least are willing to adjust based on replay. Yeah, but how about the play when they both went on for five minutes about Flozell Adams getting a holding penalty -- even after the ref called it on another player and the replay showed that player literally tackling the Packer pass rusher. But overall I agree Buck/Aikman are fine. There only a handful of truly awful announcers (Theisman being at the top of the list). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
l< j Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 They had a different pair as the International team, with Joe Theisman as color man explaining American Football to the world. Then we can scratch overseas expansion of the league from the list of things to worry about. What, Baghdad Bob was busy? kj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spiderweb Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 There is no possible way that Fox would promote and keep Joe Buck as their primary announcer because of his father if they didn't think he was the best guy for the job. They may be wrong about it, and I don't like him much myself. But his last name has zero to do with him being their #1 play-by-play guy. Zip. Nada. None. Unpossible. Who knows what lives in the hearts of those at Fox. Heck, I'm not so sure they even have hearts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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