Love em or hate em, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman have been a part of our football Sundays for the past 20 years. After it was announced that Fox's number one crew would be moving to call ESPN's Monday Night Football, many fans were left wondering why the network would let their two top talents just walk without seemingly putting up any fight.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Buck opened up about his departure from Fox and the legendary broadcaster let on that he was just as perplexed as everyone else was by Fox's decision.
“I don’t know,” Buck Said. "When asked why Fox let the duo leave the network. “They have their reasons and they have their business that they’re running, and Troy had an out and he had a chance to go out on the market and see what he (could) get. But I think all along, his No. 1 choice was to go back to Fox, and that’s what I was hoping for and that didn’t materialize.”
Despite his longtime employer's failure to keep him on board, Buck has no ill will towards Fox. In fact, the broadcasting giant granted Buck the freedom to talk to ESPN after Aikman decided to bolt for MNF. Buck reiterated that after Aikman had left, he knew he wanted to join his partner on ESPN after his contract was up. According to the NY Post, Buck was said to have had one year left on his deal.
“At this point, I wanted a known quantity next to me,” Buck said. “I think this business is more intense. As I’m coming up on 30 years in it, it’s more intense now than it’s ever been. With the amount of scrutiny that’s out there, I felt like we have a good thing. I know where he’s going. He knows where I’m going. If it was at all possible, I wanted to try to continue that. I don’t care about — we’re one year shy of tying (John) Madden and (Pat) Summerall — and all that. It’s just about two guys who enjoy working with each other and feel comfortable. That’s this business.”
I'm sure the money Aikman will be making at ESPN was another motivator for Buck to peruse the opportunity with Disney. According to Andrew Marchand, Buck's deal is expected to be worth $60-75 million.
Unfortunately for baseball fans, with Buck out at Fox, he will no longer be the voice of the World Series, having called 24 of them during his career. Buck seems to be at peace with taking a hiatus from calling a sport he made his bread and butter in, although he hasn't ruled out calling games from ESPN.
“I mean, over the course of the next five years, could I find myself sitting in a baseball stadium doing a game? Maybe,” Buck said. “But that’s not the plan.”
Buck has broken many barriers as a broadcaster. He joined Fox in 1994 where he became the youngest play-by-play announcer to call NFL games for a major network. Only two years after that, Buck called the World Series, where he also became the youngest announcer to call that event at only 27-years-old.
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