Josh Harris has turned around the culture surrounding the Washington Commanders since purchasing the team. But he isn’t safe from criticism.
Harris joined the booth during ESPN’s broadcast of the Commanders’ preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens and had one of the most awkward handshakes in television history with Joe Buck.
While Buck was talking with his hands, Harris took the invite to place his hand in the announcer’s, resulting in plenty of cracks from fans around the country.
Andrew Fillipponi and Danny Parkins of Audacy’s original podcast “1st & Pod” discussed the handshake between Harris and Buck and surprisingly disagreed on who was to blame for the awkwardness.
“Who’s more to blame here? Buck or Harris for the handshake awkwardness?” Fillipponi asked (51:05 in player above).
“Harris,” Parkins flatly replied.
“No, I disagree,” Fillipponi continued.
“What do you mean?” Parkins exclaimed. “Joe Buck talks with his hands.”
“If you put the hand out that far, I think that’s an invite for me to shake it,” Fillipponi said. “Yes, I do.”
“Poni, you talk with your hands,” Parkins said. “I talk with my hands.”
“But I don’t put my hand out like this and say ‘How do you do, Danny?’” Fillipponi chuckled. “That’s what bothered me… He invaded Josh Harris’ personal space!”
“He was talking with his hands and Josh Harris limp-wristed put his hand in Joe Buck’s hand and he grabbed his fingers,” Parkins calmly explained. “It was very awkward.”
“You can’t talk with your hands that far out of your body when someone is standing that close to you,” Fillipponi said.
Here is that handshake in question, in case you somehow haven’t seen it yet.
While Buck’s hands were extended, it appeared to be clear that he was not looking for a handshake.
“If I did not know the context and I just saw a screenshot of where Joe Buck’s hand was, I would think he was looking for a handshake,” Fillipponi continued.
“It’s like those screenshots of ‘The quarterback missed him. He was wide open.’ And then when you run the tape the receiver’s running in the wrong direction of the quarterback and the defender’s running toward where the receiver is,” Parkins said. “A picture tells a thousand words; video tells a million words. The video puts that squarely on the awkward billionaire.”
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