good afternoon everybody how's everyone doing all right excellent glad to hear the enthusiastic reply thank you all so much for being here and uh making this a part of your day I know you're excited to get started and uh I am too uh my name is Mike Butterworth I'm the director of the center for sports communication and media part of the Moody College of communication at the University of Texas at Austin and it's my pleasure to welcome you to the annual Frank Deford lecture in sports journalism which is part of our mcgar Symposium on Sports and Society uh it's one of our Signature Events I know you're very excited to meet Joe Buck and we're going to bring him out here in just a few moments but I do have a few words of thank you and a little bit of introductory material uh to share with you um first I want to thank Kappy mcgar for his support of the mcgar Symposium and the defford lecture it was Kappy's gift some 20 years ago or so that started our programming in sports communication and media and as we continue to grow uh we are indebted to his generosity my thanks as well to Moody College interim Dean Anita evangelisti the center manager Christopher Hart our Moody Tech team led by Keith burner and Mark Rogers and all of uh the others who have helped uh make possible today now following our presentation there will be time for Q&A and I think you can see that we've got the microphones set up here at the front of each aisle uh I do need to note that Joe is going to be on his way to another event uh more or less right after this one so once the Q&A has concluded unfortunately I'm going to have to sneak him out of here and uh we'll have to move along so just so you know that but we'll have plenty of time for questions from the audience uh meanwhile um I I hope that uh you'll uh indulge us a little bit in learning a bit about the person for whom this event is named for those of a certain generation Frank de Ford is synonymous with sports journalism and great Sports writing if you are not of that generation and I suspect uh most of you are not uh please allow me to introduce you to him uh put simply Frank Deford is among the most celebrated Sports writers in American history uh he was born in Baltimore in 1938 and graduated from Princeton before beginning his career with Sports Illustrated in 1962 went on to write 15 books including two that were made into movies everybody's allamerican and Alex the life of a child the latter of which was A Memoir of his daughter who died at the age of eight years old from cystic fibrosis dord then became a vocal advocate for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation where he served as National chairman for 16 years so beyond the pages of Sports Illustrated he was a weekly contributor on NPR's Morning Edition and regularly appeared on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumble now times and sports media are changing but the need for Artful ethical and insightful storytelling endures and this event is designed to celebrate those very qualities all of which are bound to the Legacy left by Frank Deford that Legacy is reflected by countless Awards and honors for Frank Deford including being named six times as us sports writer of the Year receiving several honorary degrees and being elected to the National Association of sports casters and sports writers Hall of Fame he and red Smith are the only writers to be included multiple times in David halberstam's edited collection the best American Sports writing of the century and those two stories the rabbit Hunter which is about uh former Indiana University basketball coach Bob Knight and the boxer and the blonde about boxer Billy Khan are still celebrated today as exemplars of sports journalism the sporting news once called to Ford the most influential Sports voice among members of the print media and GQ declared him to be the world's greatest sports at the center for sports communication and media we are proud to sponsor this event in Frank deford's name among our tasks is to honor and promote the highest standards of sports journalism and to consider Sports journalism's history as well as its present and its future and that present must surely account for the voices that bring sporting events to life for millions of fans and our guest today is arguably the most celebrated play-by-play announcer of his generation as most of you surely know Joe Buck is the play-by-play announcer for ESPN's Monday Night Football he and color analyst Troy Aman are the longest running broadcast tandem in US Sports history Joe began calling NFL games in 1994 after having established himself as a radio and television announcer for Major League Baseball St Louis Cardinals over his impressive career he has called 24 World Series 22 Major League Baseball All-Star games five Golf US opens and six Super Bowls Joe's won eight Sports Emmy Awards for play byplay and is a member of the sports broadcasting Hall of Fame Joe's book titled Lucky Bastard my life my dad and the things I'm not allowed to say on TV was published in 2017 as the title acknowledges his father the legendary voice of the St Louis Cardinals Jack Buck was instrumental in his career but it's abundantly clear that Joe Buck has charted his own course earning the respect and admiration of fans and broadcasters alike one of Frank deford's great attributes was his versatility and Joe follows suit with his writing as well as his work in the booth and that work has been distributed as we know across radio and television of the distinctions between the two he told NPR in 2017 when I'm doing TV it's more of a choreographed dance in a way so I've got to follow the pictures or the pictures have to follow me so there's a little bit more of a freedom when you're doing radio play byplay as opposed to television I prefer the television side of it I started in radio I enjoy the mental gymnastics that go along with matching voice to picture and vice versa and trying to Accent the action as opposed to provide all of the action through my words and that's really what play byplay is that passage illustrates the kind of insight we can expect to hear today as Joe's talk will focus on changes in sports broadcasting that have taken place over the last 25 years including the loss of distinctive personalities we are absolutely thrilled that he could join us for today for the 2025 Frank to for lecture in sports journalism please welcome Joe Buck thanks Mike um I really feel like a professor right now and I'm not going to lie it feels good feels really really good um hold on a sec go ahead um I want to make this fun I want to make this interactive um I want to make this about you as much as it's about my narcissism and my ego um being up here talking to all of you I was flying down here today I'm lucky I'm here at a flight cancel but I decided on the flight down here that I'm going to make a new steadfast rule with myself that I will never again talk at a university that would have accepted me uh as a senior coming out of high school this this organization this University would have laughed at me trying to get in to UT so I already know that the audience I'm looking at right now is smarter than I ever was um I hope that I can give you a little bit of insight into what I do why I do how I do uh and then I really want to take questions I the the assignment from my new teacher Mike who's in the back of the room uh was to come up with a speech and come up with a topic I'm not big on giving speeches I would assume you guys are not big on listening to speeches uh that's just my guess I don't have unlike a lot of people in my business a cabinet full of pre cornball talks of like you plus hard work equals success I don't do that um I would rather talk about what you guys want to talk about because I know that I'm looking at faces and people that don't all do or want to do what I do for a living um I want to talk about the business that I'm in sports broadcasting and then I want to talk to you and I want you to talk to me about how you see the business and how you see uh Sports on TV as 18 19 20 25y old people here in 2025 uh no two Journeys into this business are the same mine I think is unlike anybody else's uh I got started the old fashion way nepotism uh I am a nepo baby which I guess to some people is supposed to be some big insult it is not to me I am lucky enough to be Jack and Carol bucks son uh I was smart enough as a little boy to pay attention to what my dad was doing for a living um and so uh when you get a start in the business like I did back in 19 89 when I was 19 uh and broadcasting triaa baseball I realize back then I realize now as a 55-year-old man that I got that start because my dad was the Cardinals announcer I can't you guys are of now an age where I can't assume any of you know who my dad was or what he meant to St Louis I know Mike went into some of of the detail but my dad was a Hall of Fame broadcaster he broadcast a Cardinals for 50 years he did cbs's Monday Night Football on the radio he did CBS TV football on the weekends he traveled throughout my entire childhood and worked hard and did the best that he could to get ahead and then I came following in behind my father uh and doing a lot of cool stuff at a young age and now I'm 55 years old and I've gone from being the youngest to do all this stuff to being a middle-aged man which I never thought would happen but guess what it's going to happen to all of you middle-aged women middleaged men that's somewhere in the future for all of you God willing and I know you sit there and and think that's never going to be you but it is I've got bad news for you and uh there's some older people people nodding their heads uh as I look out right now um I had a master's class every night so while you guys are in the best hands you could be in here at UT and you have a school that can teach you what sports broadcasting is all about sports production is all about journalism classes how do I write how do I get involved in this business where do I start I know I like it but how do I get in uh I I had this master's class every night of my childhood I sat in the Cardinals broadcast Booth the best seat in the house I was two seats away from my dad I had a canned headset a little earphone that I would listen to and I'd watch the game and I'd listen to my dad who was eight feet away from me to my left broadcast the game and so my little boy mind was working on how would I do it if I was sitting two seats over and I was watching these games unfold and I was listening to how he did it but I was also around him which was a huge leg up of being around Big League athletes and being in a clubhouse and being on the team charter and being in the hotel near the hotel bar watching guys live their lives and then at 7 o'clock most nights going out putting on a uniform and trying to win baseball games in Major League Baseball I had all of that and then there I was as an 18-year-old in Indian indana University yes don't be jealous I went to Indiana University the next year I'm broadcasting AAA baseball at 19 years old and I did that in 1920 and then the Cardinals needed a fill in for my dad ironically enough uh and I had put my two full hears into the minor leagues and it became a cute thing to have Jack's Kid Joe broadcast big league baseball games I was hired when I was 20 and really working when I was 21 years old which is is basically the age that you guys are right now and then Fox fell out of the sky in 1994 and I had to go out there and audition and nobody had ever Fox at that time you see big FOX NOW Fox at that time had like Joan Rivers had a talk show and uh it was married with Children was a sitcom that was on it that was about it and so in order to legitimize their Network rer Murdoch who's still alive and doing his thing said well why don't we buy with an Australian acccident why don't we buy the NFL and we will get on everybody's televisions because we've got the NFL it was brilliant it was genius they overpaid they got the rights and then they sent out basically audition letters to people hey we know you're a young kid and you're Jackson again nepotism would you fly out to LA and audition for our new fledgling Network to cover the NFL my answer was yes and the only problem was I'd never done football in my life so I sat in spring training with my Dad we got a videotape guys ever heard of that videotape big clunky thing that you put into a machine and hit play and it would show up on your TV of an old L NFL game and I sat there with my dad and he and I broadcast the game sitting in a living room as my prep for an audition and I got on a plane I flew to Los Angeles I sat down in a studio that I'd never been in in my life I'm meeting Network Executives I'm meeting producers directors a guy that I eventually worked with named Tim Green who was just out of the NFL had played for the Falcons and had uh had a was a first round draft pick and was a lawyer and all these other things he'd never broadcast I'd never broadcast the NFL and we sat there and we clunked our way through an audition and I knew it was going well and when I walked out of the audition room the studio uh a guy came up to me with a network who I I'd never seen before and I've never seen since and said we're going to hire you so do you have an agent so I walked out of that audition knowing that I had a network job at Fox at the age at that moment of 23 years old and I who knows if I had bombed that audition if my life would have turned out the way it has I my guess is it would not my guess is I I would have continued being the Cardinal announcer maybe gotten a break somewhere along the line but I would not be standing here talking to you today so I was at Fox for 28 years uh I did all those stuff that Mike said the World Series and the All-Star games and Super Bowls and US opens and live bass fishing on television and Robbie Canal jumping over limousines in Vegas live on network TV basically I never said no I did college basketball I did all this other stuff and my answer to anytime somebody asked me a boss asked me to go do it was yes and I'll get into that later hopefully when we have a Q&A I moved over to ESPN with Troy Aman uh who you guys have probably never heard of he played for the Cowboys which is a team nearby here I'm told uh won three Super Bowls we've been together now this will be our 24th year together as Mike said it's the longest the two people have ever gotten along let alone been on TV uh calling each other a broadcast partner and we just finished year three um there there's a couple things that I think are important to to get to and that is I I want to know who you are um and maybe maybe you have to ask yourself that question um as as we go along here at you I don't know I I think to go to what Mike wanted me to talk about or what I decided I was going to talk about when Mike said come up with a speech is the dwindling of Personality on TV and how it's harder than ever in my opinion to have a personality and be you truly be you on TV on radio in print in production whatever it might be I I think it's harder today than ever so the question is when you get here to UT what do you want to do I met with a group upstairs a minute ago as I came in here on two wheels and heard what they wanted to do and what they want to study and it was impressive and and there was detail there with wanting to cover specific Sports and wanting to to do you know print media wanting to do online stuff want whatever it is you can walk into UT with an idea of what you think you want to do in this business and it may be totally different when you walk out of here and what I would hope what I would tell my daughters who have already both been through school um or my sons who are six yes I have 28 and 25y old daughters and six-year-old twin boys um which I don't recommend to anybody in this room in fact I told my wife that this was a week-long seminar and I'm not going home uh I'm just hiding basically here in Austin uh but what I would tell them is have an idea of what you want to do but go in with your eyes open and be willing to try whatever it is that this great University can provide you with opportunity I mean I know I walked in I saw the TV studio um I I saw that's that's called opportunity um you you can be good at what it is you want to do in your dorm room with a video camera with your phone I get it the business is way different than it was when I started so the first step is figuring out who you are and then what you want to do and then you have to believe in yourself and and I think that's harder now than ever I I know what you guys have to navigate I've been through it with my own girls I'm going through it a little bit with my boys but they're not old enough really to be dealing with all that stuff online but social media is not the place for you to go to when you're doing anything that's out in the open to find find out if you're any good at it my advice to you is to a watch your stuff back watch your production back read your own stuff give it a little bit of time so that it's not so fresh and give yourself a chance a real honest assessment of what you're doing if you want to do play byplay and how many people in here want to do play byplay whether it's basball football hockey whatever she's on the fence he's kind of in he's a sleep uh I right here this is my guy this is the guy all right that's who I got to watch out for I'm told from the guy behind you um but don't go to social media to find out if you're any good listen to your stuff it's hard if you want to do play byplay or you want to read your own stuff or what you have to be critical of yourself and when you start I don't care who you are I still have tapes audio tapes of me with my dad when I was 18 years old reading the Billboards for Cardinal baseball the Billboards are Cardinal baseball is brought to you by Bud Light for the refreshing taste it won't fill you up it never let you down make it a Bud Light by Amco Auto Parts for all your needs and Auto Parts go to Amco and doing that before the broadcast and I'm being coached through the session it's an open mic by my dad and the first time I do it I'm like St Louis Cardinals baseball is brought to you by Amco MCO and by Bud Light for he's like no no no no come on kid let it rip be loud have some confidence and then I'm like St Louis Cardinal baseball is but he's like God jesz and then eventually by the end it's like okay it was pretty good I was loud I was confident I felt it sounded like I knew what the hell I was doing but the first few were awful and listening back to that even as an old man like I am now it gives me it gives me anxiety because it's just so awful but you realize you have to start somewhere and you realize that everybody starts there everybody's got that voice inside their head telling you you're not good enough in my case it wasn't only you're not good enough it was you're only doing this because you're somebody's kid so good luck to you you're doing the World Series at Yankee Stadium as a 27y old you're going to be found out as a fraud that's the voice you have to calm down and quiet down eliminate murder inside your head and trick yourself into believing that you're good enough to do whatever it is you're there to do um it's a jammed landscape I know it I mean I I've I've spoken at different universities this is a fairly full room this is you know everybody here whether there were 15 arms and hands that went up when I said who wants to do play byplay you're not only fighting against those those other 15 people in this room you're fighting against every University and every kid and every broadcast School person that wants to do it because it's a great way to make a living it's fun you get to travel around no two games are the same you're not you know doing widgets on an assembly line I get to go and sit at AT&T Stadium and watch Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys try to beat the New York Giants there's nothing like the feeling of walking into the booth and knowing that I get to put my mind like Mike said in that quote my mind to the pictures and the graphics that are coming to your television and make it seem like a brand new fresh live game is post-produced that's hard to do doing live playby playay I think in today's climate is harder than it's ever been it sure is harder than it was when I started in 1991 I promise you that it sure is harder than when I started in 1994 at Fox and I'm standing at Soldier Field doing the Bears Buccaneers game and I've never broadcast a football game in high school college anywhere and I'm standing there in an NFL booth next to a guy that just retired we're like what the hell are we doing here how do we do this you have to be willing to do the fake it until you make it stuff until you make it and and that's easy to say but it's the only way you can you can be here at UT for the next 20 years but until you get out there and do it and put your mind to what you're seeing and putting words coming out of your mouth under pressure when something's happening live when people are living and dying and hanging on the outcomes of games I'm going to say hang on the outcomes of what I say that's not fair nobody cares about that but people care in today's world about who wins these games if it's because they're just some super fan or they've got hundreds of dollars riding on the game whatever it is people are invested in how these games play out they're invested in how games are refereed there that's why Troy this past year got a lot of pats on the back for being willing to say I I think that calls terrible it's a bad call and and being willing to be yourself so that's the main thing not only do you bet on yourself not only do you fake it till you make it and all these cliches but they're cliches because they're true and they work you have to be willing to work cheap you have to be willing to not say no and then you have to be willing to outwork everybody else that's sitting in this Auditorium and that means late at night I I sit in my hotel room if I'm doing let's say again a Cowboys game and I'm thinking of what's Mike too doing in his hotel room tonight what's Jim Nance doing in his hotel room tonight what's Kevin burkart doing in his what's name them all and my answer is at least in my head and it works for me they're sitting here reading the same stuff that you are trying to do all the prep that they're doing that you're doing to try to be good on the air and I will tell you that that dream that we all have and I still have it is a 5050 Plus old man of showing up at the end of a semester having never been to the class and having never even open the book or even bought the book and I'm about to have the test of my life on this to get out of a class to graduate to the next year that never goes away ever it may change it may not always be some English class you've never Read Moby Dick I still have that dream but it's also you show up and you haven't worked you haven't processed all the names and numbers you haven't done all the backstories you haven't read all the articles that some of the people in this room will someday write you don't know who's hurt you don't know who's been hot who's been bad what the main storylines are for these teams you don't know any of that and then the other part of the fun dream that every play-by-play guy has is that you can't see the field you can't see it and it's going on and you can't see anybody's number you don't know anybody's name and you're trying to fake your way through a game and and it's the same walking into a class going I have no idea what this professor is talking about I've not done any of the work if you've done the work and it's so Tire it's so tired to even say it because it's so boring but it's so true that's the only time you can relax and be yourself on the air and figure out who you are because there's only one what's your name Lincoln Lincoln there's only one Lincoln sitting here in a what's your shirt say try and stop us with a Simpsons character on it there's only one of him and there's only one of this guy right here who's gonna try to take my job and there's only one of whatever but you have to be comfortable enough and be relaxed enough to let that come out on air and now I'm going to give you the biggest piece of advice that I would give my daughters my sons my wife myself here in 2025 you better be able and willing to laugh at yourself you better be willing to stick your neck out and give it a shot and try and be different and be true to who you are and say the joke as long as it's in good taste say that you better be willing to stick your chin out and if Twitter says that was stupid or you suck or whatever you better be willing to laugh at yourself and let that roll off your back and go to the next assignment this country right now is it's a dangerous place to be with PE for people with opinion and it doesn't matter what the opinion is but you're not going to make everybody happy if there's Rangers fans in here Texas Rangers fans in here you think I hate the Rangers got it if there's a Giants fan back here San Francisco Giants you were rooting against the Giants the whole time in the playoffs especially against the Cardinals you were too biased and I wasn't but that's fine believe it doesn't matter I can laugh at it I can laugh at Twitter I can laugh at people still to this day after 30 plus years of network television my dad has been gone for 22 years saying it's a good thing you had a famous Dad you suck like okay yeah got it I suck I've been doing it since 1994 and I've been at two different networks and I've done okay for myself so I must suck but I'll take it you have to be willing and it doesn't matter what level it is somebody says something mean you got to let it roll off your back and keep plugging and if you mess up my God if you mess up turn it into an opportunity turn it into a chance to show your sense of humor and that you can laugh at yourself Terry Bradshaw at Fox who's one of my favorite onair personalities but beyond that one of my favorite human beings makes his money and makes magic when he makes mistakes and he can laugh at it and have fun and yuck it up and talk about stuff that other people are too embarrassed or shut off to talk about so that's my advice to you laugh at yourself try stuff don't be too backed into a corner with what you think you want to do don't you don't have all the answers I don't have all the answers but you sure don't and if you think you know what you do what you want to do you might not and that's okay get into this business feel your way around inside of it and see what makes you want to get up and go to work I I would rather go to work then have a day off that's the great it's the ageold if you love what you do you've never worked a day in your life I don't people are like hey you working this weekend and my answer I'm trying to be cute but no I mean I'm just broadcasting and that's how I feel doing a World Series is fun doing an All-Star game is fun it's hard you got to prep and all that and it's a Highwire act in today's world but my gosh if that's not fun for you or covering the UT baseball game or covering the football game or writing about some big play that ERS made or whatever it is if that's not fun for you then you're in the wrong go to business school go be an economist go and by the way there's nothing wrong with knowing all of that whenever I Trail around with my dad and I went to different networks as a kid or I was a little bit younger than you guys and about ready to go to college my question to different Executives that my dad worked for was what do you look for in a potential employee here at CBS here at ABC here at NBC it's before Fox and the answer was we want kids that are well-versed in a lot of different things it's not hey I went to Texas and I I I worked every minute of every day in the broadcast journalism school and there's nothing that I know outside of broadcast journalism I don't know no I know nothing about the world around me I don't know anything about law I don't know anything about medicine I don't know anything about history I don't know anything well I've interviewed presidents I've interviewed people that don't fall into the category of the typical Sports guest so you better be be able to bring something else to the dance than just hey I know uh whatever you were stats for the last four years and I can name all who cares anybody can look that up that's not interesting how can you be more interesting how can you be more well read I wish as a 55y old man I had read all the books that I was supposed to have read by now whether it's it doesn't matter anything by Dickens or anything by Hemingway or anything all the stuff that I was searching in the drugstore for the cliff notes which I don't even know exist anymore trying to cut my way through that I wish I'd read it so that I could reference it I have a daughter one of my two who has read all that stuff the other one's like me she's like well how can I get by without kind of really reading this and will you help me with my report and my answer was always yes but that probably wasn't doing my kids a great service improve your vocabulary how best can you if you want to be writing about sports you want to be broadcasting it you want to be talking about it on some radio program or whatever it is how are you going to improve your vocabulary if the only thing you're reading is about sports my dad who was a World War II vet depre grew up in the depression he was all sports that was his business but when the newspaper arrived I don't know if you guys know what that is it was a thing that you held in your hands and you could Leaf through different sections he didn't go like as a kid I went right to the sports and the rest of it was like he went right to the front page section to the opinion Pages all that stuff and got to the sports when he got there but he could interview Martin Luther King he could interview Cash's clay before he was Muhammad Ali and talk about race issues he he could interview uh Eleanor Roosevelt which he did he could interview presidents he could do because he knew more than just a box score so don't be too specified um we've got time I I I I don't want to sit here and lecture to you I would rather much rather and think it' be way more interesting if you guys just ask me questions and I'll be as honest as I can I realize there are cameras in this room and somebody will post something of me out of context halfway through a sentence and I'll probably get fired but let's give it a shot let's roll those Dice and see if anybody has any questions if not I could talk about sports broadcasting and stories and doing a game when I was 18 at Chay Stadium this is my stall tactic of having somebody walk up to one of these mic microphones 18 go you got to move you got to move there you go here he comes you know what I would give for your head of hair millions millions of dollars be gone by 40 all right yes sir I'm sure you get this question a lot but I was talking with one of my friends and I kind of just want to know it what is your favorite I guess call your favorite sports moment that you've been a part of during your career so it's it's a good question and it's funny because because I'll get it every once in a while and it's like man if you knew how rarely I think like that so it makes me kind of take inventory of where I've been and H this is getting impressive uh all of these different calls kind of fit in that moment so everyone's so unique so I would say what's your Mo what's your favorite football call I would say Stefon Diggs Minneapolis Minnesota Miracle against the Saints and it was amazing because it happened we were in that Stadium stadiums gorgeous beautiful it happened right down in front of us and everybody would be conditioned that the guy would make a catch Steph UND digs just hop out of bounds and try and get a f the field goal kicker out to kick a game-winning field goal instead he turned around and it was stunning to see nobody there and he and I probably at the same time realize that and down the sideline he goes and he scores a game-winning touchdown and the thing's over and it was as the clock expires and normally in the NFL or football you don't get a walk-off moment like that in baseball you get it you know ninth inning big home run game's over now in football if you get it it's probably a field goal kicker which is just not that exciting it is kind of but not really but not like a walk-off touchdown so that's probably football baseball um sorry Rangers fans game six 2011 David freeze home run center field get over it I didn't hit it I just called it um but those moments that are like a broadcaster thinks like a fan you're watching the game you think it's going oneway and then when it flips I don't care who it is yes that was thrilling but it would have been thrilling no matter who hit it for whatever team it doesn't matter it was like this game it's game six of the World Series the Rangers are going to win their first World Series ever and then bang it goes the other way and that's the fun of what we do so those are the two that stand out to me thank you yeah sure first of all thank you for being here it's a true privilege so I'm an economics and government student so my question is going to be a little more sorry about that D so you have one of the biggest outreaches in sports one of the most recognizable voices so how do you navigate the responsibility of D of addressing politically charged moments and sports such as national anthem protest athlete activism or controversies surrounding major events yeah it's it's hard um because it's hard for a couple of reasons one when you're doing a game now if I'm doing the pregame show and we have a segment about that that's one thing and I think it gives you enough time to cover whatever issue there is that is being protested or something that's happening and you can give all sides of it from where you sit or where other people sit you can involve people from different walks of life or people who've had different experiences in the conversation when you're doing playby playay and you're involved in the middle of a game it's hard to do it because you feel like man if I go there I don't want some Big Moment Like A Diggs walk-off touchdown he wouldn't do it in the fourth quarter but something big could happen and all of a sudden your conversation is cut off and you've only scratched the surface and you haven't given all sides and so that's the F that's the frightening thing so if I have something that is involved like I was obviously doing games when Colin Kaepernick was kneeling during the star spangle Banner we were not showing the anthem at that time but we weren't showing the anthem anyway so then we started showing the national anthem and you have to be prepared to give a thoughtful let's say 20 seconds on it which is absurd who can give a thoughtful 20 seconds on anything and Colin's experience as a young man in this country is way different than my experience as a young man in this country so who who am I to sit there with the m I'm the guy with the microphone but I've got to give each side they're due and try to cover it as best I can from all angles and you're trying to cram that in coming out of a commercial before first down or between first down and second down it's like man so what I will typically do is I'll write it out I will write out the issue the two viewpoints sometimes more than two viewpoints and try to make sure that I give something it's the only thing I write out I don't write out home run calls I don't write out but if it's a controversial topic or something going on socioeconomic I want to make sure that I give it as much time as I can and I say it and cover it as smartly as I can and then we go back to covering football and then you get into well okay they've already covered it on the pregame they're probably covering it on the news every night of the week and now when you're doing the game do you want to take that moment over and just make it about that as the play-by-play guy it becomes a balance so you have to strike a balance and and I think it's that way with anything but I think with those moments you know I I think you have to be smart about how you do it and you have to give everybody their their side that's that's the that's really the only way I can answer that thank you yep go ahead we'll go back and forth yes hello you and Troy Aman obviously were one of the most recognizable still one of the most recognizable Duos in the history of play byplay and color broadcasting but do you have a duo in mind throughout your life that didn't have as much shine may not have been The A Team that you really enjoyed listening to for a small period of time yeah it's a great question um I first of all I think a lot of times like I don't where did you grow up uh Frisco Texas in Frisco Texas so you're G to have people that you were exposed to now I realiz again I'm I was born in 1969 so I grew up in the 70s and the 80s so that was more of a radio time Believe It or Not especially for sports um the Major League Baseball game of the week it was one game a week that was on TV instead of every game is on TV so I would lean more toward the radio guys that I was exposed to but it depends on where you grew up in this country it's like different schools of broadcasting if you grew up in La you go well Vince Scully I mean you kidding me Vin Scully is the greatest to ever do it if you grow up in the east coast you go depending on how old you are Mel Allen or Marv Albert covering the NBA or you know right on down the line you grow up in the midwest there's my dad there's Ernie Harwell if you consider Detroit somewhere kind of in that area there's Harry KY there's so it so for me I tend to lean toward you know on TV if Al Michaels is doing the game I'm watching because it's a big game and I love listening to him and it makes me feel like I'm watching an important game still and he's 78 79 years old and he's still phenomenal um baseball I would say Vin Scully even though I didn't grow up in La his voice and his melodic kind of delivery just lends itself to baseball so it's very personal it's why people go oh this guy sucks no I like that guy this this lady's terrible no that she's great it you know it depends on your personal taste so those would be the names that jump out to mind I I would say Vince Scully for baseball other than my dad and uh Al Michaels for for football thank you yep um yes Homer uh I'm curious you know as we kind of see the balkanization of sports I think the most glaring example is kind of the uh elimination of the mid-range Jumper in basketball um I can also think about like in baseball where home runs kind of remain stagnant but um batting averages kind of decline like is there an example of that you think that's glaring in football or if at all that's you know going to change the game I feel like football and maybe I'm biased but I feel like football's pretty good at going through Cycles where things will have like I feel like six years ago seven years ago every was like oh my God the Wildcat the Wildcat formation they the the quarterback's off the field and they snap it directly to the running back they have an extra guy blocking one year later that was gone it's like they figure out a way to stop it because it's physical body onbody and but I I hear what you're saying with baseball and it's one of the reasons why baseball in my opinion and again I'm the get off my lawn dinosaur guy but back in my day and I can't believe I can even say that it was about pitching matchups it was about lineup construction it was about putting the ball in play it was about oh my God yeah but if we get to a game seven it's going to be Doc Gooden against Nolan Ryan and now it's the last World Series I did which was 2021 the Braves had a guy starting in game three of the World Series that had never started a game in the big leagues and they didn't care yeah and and I don't see how that's good for the game I'd love to see it swing back the other way I'd love to see guys be able to put the ball in play more the NFL really has not taken the bait much on on analytics I think it works for this week like with the combine and putting numbers to you know athletes but if if a guy runs a four 4440 is he that much more valuable than a guy that runs a 454 but is better at getting in and out of breaks I mean if they take everybody off the field and they go okay the winner of this game will be the guy who runs the fastest 40 then I get it that makes sense to me but it just feels like it's got to fit inside the game and when it's bodies on bodies they just have a way of kind of eliminating that stuff year to year I haven't seen it do you have anything in mind because you're obviously smarter than I am with the question um I I think the creation of kind of like more limited used plays like the tush push they're like oh we have to play for this exact situation which I guess that's kind of all football but I think the and I mean I've only experiences and I'm only 20 so I don't I can't speak to you know past but I think the increase of those types of plays where you're like I'm in this situation like this is the only play that I can call yeah and and it's right now it's Unstoppable for one team yeah maybe Buffalo maybe a team and a half yeah I don't know just don't let them get that far yeah if you don't like it yeah if you don't like it then stop it and when we talked to Todd Bulls who's the head coach is awesome head coach of the Bucks like how are you gonna stop the tush push he goes we're not going to let him get into third or fourth and one yeah and it's like okay that makes sense but easier said than done sometimes but it's a good question thank you thank you yes Hey Joe you talked a lot about how difficult it is to prepare for games or calling games I that sounds whiny well you did mention it a lot so okay all right good great so uh just like for example like a Monday night football game like how early do you prepare for those games and then what's kind of like a day in the life for a Monday night football game yeah it's uh I I do not want to act as if I'm digging ditches all day long and I've got the hardest job in the world I'm the last guy like I'm the nepotism guy I'm happy and lucky and realize they don't have a real job um but it is a lot of reading like if I walk out of the booth on a Monday night and I've got another game the next week let's say it's Houston against Kansas City I'm reading we've got a a service called Sports scan that will send me every article written about the Texans and the Chiefs for the previous week and I start plowing my way through all of that stuff and then the game story excuse me from the day before so I'm doing Monday night theyve played probably on a Sunday or maybe even a Thursday and I'm now reading all the after postgame stuff on the game they just played because I've got to act if I show up in Kansas City in week 14 and it's the first time I've had the Chiefs I've got to act like I've watched them for the first 13 games when I haven't i' I'm doing my own games so um it's not like following the Cardinals or following the Mavs being the Mavs broadcaster you're seeing every game well when you show up for one game it's you got to play catchup and so it's just reading highlighting again I'm not green about this stuff I like to print it out I like it in my hands I like a pen in my hand I like to go through it highlight and then I start building what I call boards on an Excel spreadsheet that has name number height weight years in the NFL where they were drafted what college they went to and then that's the Bare Bones of it for each team the defense coming down the offense going out the reverse for each team's other units and then I start adding on top of that all the stats all the notes all the so I walk into a game with something that's not much bigger than this and I set it in front of me and I back in my high school days we had open book tests and I never understood what the point of an open book test was like that's cheating it's stupid who can't pass an open book test but the exercise is to see if somebody's actually read the material so that under the gun they can find it and because I've done all that work some people Farm it out and they have you know a college kid and I'm not taking applications uh do that work for them but I need to do it myself so I know where it all is so that when a big play happens my eyes go right to whatever note I want to throw out there um during the live broadcast I can't be like fumbling around and going oh wait hold on everybody I know there's something in here I wanted to say about you know whoever Jason Whitten and his touchdown record I I gotta have it right here so that's kind of what every Sunday or Monday now in my life is a final exam and I have to be ready for that in the pinch that's kind of how I do it thank you yeah yes sir uh first off thank you for being here um so I had two questions first how excited are you to be covering the Super Bowl in two years I know it's been like a seven-year Hiatus since the uh Chiefs ners games you guys had back at Fox and uh secondly I feel like I feel like there's been a slight change in terms of like your excitement from where you at Fox I mean obviously you're great there but there's like a sense of like nonchalant in some of these big moments I felt from you like with the David Tyree catch and the Jared Cook catch to where now at ESPN I saw a couple of videos that they posted on the intros before the game games I think one was like a Bucks game where you were screaming like it's December before the game yeah I was just goofing around that yeah like would you say that there's uh are there any you've kind of like tried changing between like I guess your first act at Fox and now being at ESPN yeah really really well said uh wellth thought out question and I appreciate it because it's it's correct um and again I could give seminars and this stuff I could talk about this very question for two hours um but I won't I'll talk about it for four minutes three minutes um when I was at Fox a lot of the stuff I talked about I took the bait of filling in and and again it kills me that you guys are of the age that you are because in my opinion the greatest Duo to ever and maybe this goes back to your question uh to call an NFL game was Pat Summerall and John Madden and John Madden who you probably know for no other reason from the video game but he was groundbreaking and that he was the ex- coach and he was a you know an ex's an O's guy and he would write on the telestrator and that was kind of new when he was doing it and he was bam boom WAP you know like funny and fun and and alive and Pat Summerall who was my dad's partner back even before that obviously was like the straight just almost monotone he played in the NFL but he was kind of the Ying to the Yang of John Madden so Madden was going just being crazy and then Pat Summerall would go Montana rice touchdown and then John would go oh my God I can't believe and so they leave Madden goes to another Network Work summer all retires and now it's me Troy Amman and Chris Collinsworth and I look back on that time and I'm like man I took the very bait that I wish I hadn't taken obviously at that moment that I didn't take when I started with the Cardinals I didn't come into the Cardinals trying to sound like my dad first of all my dad if he were here and some young kid would go Mr Buck how do I get how do I start as a broadcaster his advice would be start smoking like get your voice down lower it's like okay dad you can't say that anymore but so I didn't go in trying to do a Cardinals game like this I was 21 years old I sounded like a little kid so I didn't try to sound like him but when I did Fox and I was working with Troy and Chris I tried to sound like Pat sumerall and be very don't look at me look at Chris and Troy like touchdown like and and it was Pro it was not not I don't like those calls when I hear them back then in 2011 and here's the end of the answer or people are leaving as I talk at the in 2011 I think after the Super Bowl here nearby in Dallas I get a paralyzed vocal cord and if you've read my book which is available absolutely nowhere um I got it because I got a hair transplant surgery one of eight and they put me under and they put a breathing cuff I was under general anesthetic and this could have been for that could have been for a bad knee it could have been for anything it's on every waiver you sign for anything any when you go under they put a cuff on my on my throat to try to avoid exactly what happened and it paralyzed my vocal cord and I came out of that sounding like this and so I was doing games for most of 2011 which is the year of the freeze home run against your Rangers but the beginning part of that year I sounded like I was dying because I couldn't my vocal cord was paralyzed and I couldn't keep air and I couldn't make loud noises and I couldn't yell and I couldn't emote and I couldn't and then slowly it got better and when it finally got better I went from worrying about how I was going to even make a sound to just letting it Fly and having fun with it and being like I I took my voice for granted and you talk about learning and be having something where you felt like your world was collapsing and you were about to get fired which I was to feeling like you have a new lease on life and just being different that's kind of what happened so I just stopped trying to be something that I wasn't and just show my emotion for the game which I'm glad I did sounds good thank you yep Hey Joe so um I know you spoke on your Fox audition and that first getting the job there and I guess my question I'm sure it's very different now than it was then but how what is that process like of doing an audition for a company where you're trying to do play-by-play broadcasting like they just put on a random game for you guys and you just had to go like literally I had no idea it's not like they gave me the game and then I could practice like here if this if he hands off to the Run back at the 1402 Mark he's going to hand off to the running back like it's Severance or something and I I now know that oh well I this would be a good time to hand off to the running back it was like a just a random game I think more than anything and I think this does still apply today they want to make you uncomfortable and they want to see how you handle it so it'd be way too comfortable to give me a game I've seen so I'm sitting in a studio at a desk like in your studio here I had a producer and a director in another room talking in my ear in my headphones and they put rolled in a big screen TV and it was like here's the roster call it and it was like okay and I just got through it and it's a I think it's a study if if I were GNA hire somebody I'd want to know how they act and how they respond when they're not comfortable and that's kind of what it was so you know I'm not saying that that exact thing would happen but you're going to turn in if you want to do play byplay you're going to turn in I guess today it would be called a link back then it was you'd send a cassette tape you sent a videotape and you would hope that they got it now you can email a link and go here's here's the highlights of me calling the Longhorns playing Indiana in baseball but I would caution you if I was going to hire having just a highlight reel is not what I would want to hear I would want to hear whether it's baseball I want to hear I want to hear a couple of fulled bats where nothing's happening I want to hear how that person talks I want to hear not just swing in a high fly ball to leave like it's gone the long horns wi my God I mean those everybody could do that but how is it when there's four foul balls in a row and it's a hot night and you hear the popcorn person and there's a pitching change and how do you get in and out of commercial breaks and all that that's broadcasting not being in the fantasy Booth doing home runs and touchdowns so that's what I would turn in and I'd maybe give it a disclaimer say I've also got a highlight reel of all of my game-winning home runs but here I am just calling a game what do you think and then say willing to work for free I'm willing to work for minimum wage if you bring me in for a year and then see you at the end of the year if you still want me around that's what I would that would impress me as a boss and that would get you in the door thank you yep I mine written down um throughout your career you've had some you have the opportunity to call some of the most memorable Moments in Sports history besides preparation how do you mentally and emotionally prepare yourself for these high stakes events and how do you balance St professional while staying well also conveying the excitement and the drama of the moment it's hard and I learned the lesson and you will all whoever wants to get into this learn the lesson along the way that you have to just trust yourself and I learned that when Mark Maguire was going for the Home Run Chase in 1998 he was trying to break a 1961 record of Roger Maris who would hit 61 home runs and he was closing in on it and that whole summer everybody was asking me well if you're on the microphone what are you going to say when he break the home run record I was like I don't know and then somebody would ask me the next day be like I don't know and then by the next week I'm like man I better come up with something great and so I went home one night I was doing it on Fox National TV he got to 61 Fox had picked up the game they're playing the Cubs and I was doing it the next night and so I rote out some stupid line about Maguire around the bases and into the history book there it is Maris move over and all this junk and I rote it out and I got to the stadium and I have my scorebook there and the Home Run he happened to hit a home run that night the 62nd home run and it was the only home run he hit that barely got over the wall and was barely Fair it was like a line drive hooking down into the corner and I could never get my eyes back down to this script that I had written I had to make sure that I was watching the ball that a it was fair and B it was an actually a home run so I wasn't going my head's not down here going there it is around the his around the bases and into oh excuse me foul ball that's foul uh the counts two and two then my career's over so you have to keep your eyes up and the point is I did I never read this and because I was watching and I saw how excited he was because he was watching the ball too that he leaps over first base and missed it when he got to first base because he was so excited and his eye was watching it running and he sees it go over and he jumps and he had missed first base so that became part of my call as he's going back to the bag to touch it to make it official I say Touch first Mark you're the new single season home run King and those words never cross my mind obviously I didn't know was going to miss the base that night before but I also never put that you're the new single season home run king that's nothing I'd ever thought about but it came out so the point is you got to trust yourself you got to trust your gut sometimes it's not going to be right I'm known for the Randy Moss that's disgusting thing if I could go back I'd change that but you know what I I have to give myself Grace because if I'm going to do that well then I would have to go back over every call and and be unrealistic and look back and try to make everything perfect this is not a this is not a broadcast broadcasting is not perfect and sometimes you're going to say things it's going to be dumb sometimes you're going to say things you think it's funny it's going to be taken the wrong way sometimes you're going to say things and it's it's it's just wrong like calling a home run a double or vice versa or getting the wrong guy scoring a touchdown it's gonna happen so it's not perfect and you can't hold yourself to an unrealistic standard because if you're trying to be perfect I don't care what you want to do in this business you're trying to be perfect you will be boring you will have no opinion you will be not as excited you will be just vanilla like even if somebody goes I hate you you hate the Red Sox I'm like well you know who I am though I have no idea who you are so get over it because I don't hate the Red Sox but that's the point you you have to be willing to not be perfect okay thank you yep go ahead I'll try to go quicker so we get to all uh I was just gonna ask you know me and a buddy of mine we had an opportunity to call a UT football game it wasn't broadcasted anywhere it's just on tape I couldn't sleep the night before um we had done all the work but you know I could study 30 hours for a test I won't feel amazing going into the test when in your process do you know you're ready to call the big game or um you know you have it you feel good enough the night before going into the game that you're GNA do as good of a job as you can man that's a great question I'll tell you when you do a Super Bowl and you know that there's 120 million people on the other end of whatever it is you're talking into you feel like you can never be ready and you have to I I hate that I mean I don't hate it but the phrase give yourself great you have to you have to be willing to turn it off because you can make yourself nuts so in the case of the Super Bowl it's a good example because there's two weeks between the championship game and the Super Bowl and uh he asked about you know doing a Super Bowl would be the first time in seven years normally we're on an every threeyear cycle and it's like oh my god well what if what if the punter has some unbelievable moment and there's an article that comes out the week prior to the week of the game and it's about the punter and his lucky horseshoe that he keeps in his back pocket during practice and like nobody cares like you here's the one thing here's the secret sauce the audience doesn't know what you don't know does that make sense you can act like you can you can try to get every bit of information crammed onto your work your sheets or into your head and you're never going to get it all there but you got to know that the audience because they're listening to you you're sitting in the the chair they're going to give you the benefit of the doubt so if you're broadcasting you cannot go a 100 miles an hour out of the gate it's like Tom Brady doing the Super Bowl Kevin burkart doing the Super Bowl when Kevin did his first one two years ago he called me I was like don't feel like you got to get everything out in the first five seconds just let go slow go slower than you think because your mind's going to go the audience the audience wants to hear more the audience wants to hear more the audence it makes it's like in security so the audience doesn't know that you don't know that the punter has a lucky horseshoe that he puts in his pocket every time he kicks or whatever or a rabbit's foot in his shoe nobody cares so do the basics add some flavor to it and like my mom used to say before big test I only care if you get a good night's sleep I'm like thanks Mom I'm going to bed and just get a good night's sleep be rested and don't make yourself nuts like if you can't sleep the night before that's a good sign but it's probably not productive cool thank you yep hi Joe thanks for being here sure uh first of all I enjoyed your book which I found on Amazon if any did you okay good it was a couple years ago got not a scent out of it so thank you that would have been good to know before read yeah I know well anyway so I'm curious how you've defined uh your satisfaction with your career over the course of your career especially like in the early times and also when you lost your voice and you were not sure maybe how much longer it was going to last I've I've tried to really appreciate it more as I've gotten older um I I still think of myself as a 25-year-old I still think of myself as Jack Buck's son I still think of myself as kind of the lucky guy that got a chance to do stuff he shouldn't have gotten a chance to do and while it's annoying on one hand I love it on the other because it keeps me working hard so I don't sit around going oh I'm in the broadcasting Hall of Fame sports broadcasting Hall of Fame I didn't know what that was they're like hey you're in the sports broadcasting Hall of Fame like do I have to go um so it's all that stuff's nice and I've tried to enjoy it when I show up at these things and I get these Awards but that's not what it's about it's about having fun feeling satisfied and returning home and being with my family and and aside from that I I don't want to be the guy that puts everything into his career and then at the end when my career is over if that's today or if it's in 20 years or whenever it is to go I got nothing like I still have a wife I still have kids I still have whatever I have my family is the most important thing so I I love what I do but it doesn't Define who I am thank you yep hi so you spoke about how the best way to kind of gauge your work is to uh take a step back and look at back at what you've done how do you look at yourself with a uh that kind of like mindset of like I'm judging myself and kind of remove yourself from it well it's good because I think if you if you were to do a game like if I did a Super Bowl and then I went back home and watched the Super Bowl back that night or the next day which it's running all all the time on NFL Network and I can't avoid it it's like like I'm I'm thinking about what I was thinking about in the moment like oh I really wanted to tell the story about Patrick momes and his mom or him going to a visit kids in a hospital I wanted to get that in here and I didn't get it in here and that's all I think about well if I give it a little bit of time a month sometime you know I'm lucky enough that I can go back I can watch me do a World Series at 27 years old and that's like me listening to somebody else that that doesn't even feel like me so I'm watching it as a fan with would watch it almost like I don't remember what I was thinking about when Andy Pettit was trying to strike out Chipper Jones I'm just watching it like a fan so the more time you can give it the more you can realistically watch it like a fan would at home so you know Bank some stuff and be able to go back and watch it when it's not so fresh in your mind and then you're a little bit more fair to yourself all right thank you yep hi thank you for being here um you said you tried to be the guy who always said yes who is willing to try anything do you have one big yes that you think defined your career um well I wrote about it in my book it was when I tried pot brownies um just kidding please don't post actually I've talked about it on the Dan lebatard show so it's fun um yeah I there are a lot of moments where my better judgment was would have been to say I'm not going to do that because I don't know what I'm doing I mean the most extreme example is live bass fishing on TV which is a sentence that shouldn't have a lot of word of those words in it bass fishing live uh because for an hour and a half on whatever night that was whatever year that was the largemouth bass that these guys were fishing for decided they were not going to bite so we had a show of an hour and a half of a GU standing around on boats catching nothing so it was awful and I didn't know anything about fishing but I was like oh that'll be interesting I I'd love to tackle that um Robbie Canal jumping over limousines live in Vegas is not something I grew up wanting to do but it was pretty thrilling and it was pretty surreal because we were at the rehearsal the day before and Robbie Canal decided his dad D you don't know any of these names but his dad was evil Canal which for people who grew up in the 70s he tried to jump the Snake River on this weird rocket thing and went right into the river but was this stunt man this Daredevil we used to have toys of evil canval and so his dad showed up they got into an argument right on the ramp and Robbie decided to give his dad a hand gesture got on his bike went up to the top of the ramp sped down it and actually did the J the night before the next night when we were doing it live on TV trying to pretend like this he was trying to avoid death and we'd watched him do it the day before like nothing to it and he took his hands off the handlebars and I mean it's just stories that I would never have if I had said no what would I have been doing been at home like give me the challenge of showing up on TV talking for two hours about these Daredevil stunts that were live on Fox it was awesome I'm so glad I did it but at the time I was scared um horse jumping done that never knew I didn't know anything about what an oxer jump is and different things that I had to learn but I learned it and I stumbled my way through it and I became a better broadcaster because of it so there there are no NOS in this I I unless it's something that you go my God that that's that's doesn't seem like it's legal so I I I I would not say no to anything thank you yes uh first off you're the man Joe big fan um but like I like you a lot it's it's really easy to have a lot of energy and make like a 60 yard bomb really important you can you can say really loud and you have a lot to fill in for that dead space but how about like plays where it's like a five yard slant and now okay what do I say from here like as the next play comes on yeah I mean it depends on the sport but if it's a a five yard run as i' as I said to Troy 24 years ago or I said to Tim Green because my dad told me to tell Tim Green not every play is worthy of the broadcasting Hall of Fame you don't need to make it amazing sometimes it's just a play and so you know you can talk about a lot of things it it depends on where your mind goes you know Aman hands off to EMT Smith over the left side he got four yards on that play now what do I say well the Cowboys came into this game hoping that they could run against the Arizona Cardinals and so far they've been a pretty good job they're at five yards a carry you know if they can do that they'll have a pretty nice game on the ground tonight whatever it is you can just it's about that's what it's about that it's about how do I feel but you don't need to go wall thewall you can't take that bait of thinking that oh my God it's dead air people people are going to think I don't know what the heck I'm doing or what I'm supposed to say it doesn't work that way in fact sometimes it's more pleasant if the person doing it is not making just like a woodpecker just drilling you in the head the whole time like it's like give me a break so that's that's at least how I want to hear it doesn't now everybody's got a different style so there's a lot of different places your mind can go baseball is the hardest and yet the easiest you can talk about the size of the crowd you can talk about who's up in the bullpen you can talk about who's on the bench you can talk about a guy they just called up you can talk about whatever the weather you can talk whatever it is there's a million things you can talk about as long as you can kind of step back and look at the big picture and not just be focused on that four yard runes that makes sense hi there than you so much for being here um I've always been a person that's enjoyed being on camera no matter if it's like a standup or like interviewing somebody um and sometimes I really like fixate on like what I'm going to ask them like on my paper instead of just like you know throwing in banter here and there and so nerves get in the way and then I just end up being like well that wasn't that good that's learning that right so if I can jump ahead I know what your question's GNA be I think if you prepare an interview that's great you should but the most important attribute to a good interviewer is listening so if I if I go oh my God this list of questions is unbelievable I going to blow their minds with every one of these questions and you ask the first question hey you know what was going through your mind or whatever the question is what was going through your mind when you scor that 60 yard touchdown they're like oh man uh that was what a moment that was and uh yeah uh probably going to go out and uh drink 45 beers and uh you know what I don't even want to make a joke about it but whatever they say and you go okay um so back in 1971 and you you have to be willing to act like you're at a bar in a conference room in a classroom in a coffee shop that's you listen to what the other person says you're going to have all that stuff you prepare is going to be in the back of your mind but what should be in the front of your mind is what did they just say and how can I work off that those are the best interviews because often times what you have is your 10 questions everybody else has probably thought of already but what they haven't thought of is how do I come off that answer with something that either Builds on that or you know takes it in a different direction in an interesting way that that person just opened the door for so again again it gets back to really trusting your mind and trusting yourself to think on your feet that makes sense yes and by the way smile you have to not you anybody it's it's the thing people tell me all the time you look you look like you're mad you look but that's like my face when I'm thinking but it's there's part acting in this too you have to you have to kind of welcome people with a smile and you have to you have to be accessible and friendly that that's part of it so even if you're grinding in your head like what am I going to say what am I going to ask what am I gonna you have to still act a little bit not stupidly you don't have to look like a bobblehead not you or any I I think about this all the time when we come on the camera at the beginning of the game it is going through my head like do I look at the camera do I look at Troy do I not at the camera do I not at Troy do I but that's all like uhuh because it's just awkward but you have to kind of act yes Hey Joe um on the topic of public opinion um how much of what people say and you know what people say on Twitter or the audience's opinion how much of that do you take in and use to help you make you a a better commentator and how much of that do you like throw away well I I use a lot of it I use a lot a I use a lot of it sometimes as motivation B there are a lot of good points that are made there sometimes and you can't throw it all away now that would mean that I'm going through everybody's comment which is self-defeating if I'm doing a World Series or I'm doing a football playoff game and there's in the case of a football game 40 million people watching you're gonna trend on Twitter or X or whatever you're gonna trend on that so people are going to be talking and if you go down into that black hole you'll never come out but some things filter their way through and you can take there's nothing wrong with getting really good feedback even if it's couched in sarcasm snark being mean whatever it is sometimes there's a nugget of Truth in there and you go ah I never thought about it that way or man when I said that I get it people could say that that's what they thought I meant and and it makes you rethink how you say things some sometimes so there's plenty of good on there it just when it becomes redundant it's the same thing over and over again you got to kind of filter through all that stuff yeah thank you yes hi so you mentioned a lot with like opinions and you know you're not going to please everybody but I feel like we live in a world where cancel culture has become a very big deal and how do you kind of navigate that because when you're live on air play byplay whether maybe you're making a joke or talking about something you mentioned you prepare those controversial topics is it something you kind of think about like how do you deal with that yeah I I think about it all the time my my first reaction to things is to be try to be funny about it and that doesn't really play in today's world because people will take what you say and and it can be completely unintended but it can be twisted in a way that can have you looking for a job so it's a balance and I think the hard thing is being yourself being funny being true to the moment being off the cuff by the seat of your pants whatever you want to call it and then go really want to do that and be so you have to find a balance in there somewhere you have to be yourself you have to be your own personality but you don't need to be controversial you don't need to be mean you don't need to be whatever you you just you can have a witty fun wise take and it doesn't have to necessarily get into that that category of getting you in trouble but I mean yeah it's a real thing thank you yep Hey Joe okay yes I want to get the guy in the suit because he wore a damn suit so sorry to the guy who left who's wearing the Homer Simpson shirt but he gets the question yes no no no go ahead I I don't mean to yeah uh Hey Joe art and flights thank you for being here and letting me speak before the man in the suit andai I appreciate it greatly um you become one of the most successful play-by-play commentators and I'm sure you get asked a lot about your defining moments of success in your career I'd love to know about a defining moment of failure you've had and how that's changed your trajectory well I had a defining moment that was very acute at the end of the US Open in 2018 I don't even know where year it was it was at Aaron Hills and a guy named Brooks Kea who's gone on to bigger and better things the first time that he was really on the national stage he won his first US Open and there was this woman that kept showing up in every shot it's like there she is again and now they're giving him the trophy and There She is again and so I get a card that's passed up from the back of our little production our our booth from a guy who I've never mentioned his name never done it I won't do it here but he hands me this card card now realize this is a guy who's been handing me cards all week making me sound way smarter than I am giving me detail of different tournaments and all this other stuff so he hands me a card he goes That's whatever name he put on there Jennifer Johnson Michigan state soccer player that's Brooks's girlfriend so I'm like so I get it and so then somebody else talks I'm like and uh in case you're wondering that's Jennifer Johnson Michigan State football player or soccer player and uh Brooks's girlfriend and then a pause and then Brad Faxon who I'm working with goes well actually Joe that's Jenna Sims that's Brooks's new girlfriend Jenna Johnson was his old girlriend I'm like well what a surprise that is uh okay and as I'm saying as as Brad is saying that I look in the back to the guy who's handing me the card he's like and I'm like wanting to just flip him off back there but I didn't and that sucked bad because we we were already the New Kids on the Block doing golf at Fox and oh my God these guys are ruining the sport and they suck and whatever and we've had a pretty good week at Aaron Hills and the last thing going off the air is the idiot right here who has the name of the wrong girlfriend uh for the winner of the US Open and I went into the TV compound which is where all our trucks are and I look like somebody shot my dog and I was my daughter was there my wife we get into a into a car we're going to the airport and I think my daughter was legitimately worried for my well-being I was in the back of the back seat like I was white as a ghost like I it was awful but if I'm going to accept all these 50 other cards and made me seem smarter than I was the guy made a legitimate mistake it happens it's what I said over here you can't try to be perfect mistakes are going to happen that was a moment of failure that and I'm not blaming him I I if I should know who that is so it sucks but you got to wear it and then you realize in today's world for as bad as social media can be they're on to the next thing 24 hours later and while you feel like everybody's laughing at you they're laughing at somebody else the next minute so that's one I have many more thank you yes all right go I've been looking at you the whole time yes sir yeah uh well first off thank you Mr Buck for being here um so my question to you and I know you probably get this a lot but where do you see the future of the sports media industry heading because you know print the print media business is dying you know local you know the local news viewership is going down um what Avenue do you think is going to be the most problem profit coming up is it going to be radio is it going to be TV is it going to be podcasting streaming well I think podcasting for the right people I did a podcast for three years and let me tell you if you want to do something for three years and not make a dime do podcasting um I but I loved it because it was like one Avenue where I had one with all my podcast was with Oliver Hudson Kate's brother who is a great goofball and we had a great time uh but you know that that's a tough one unless your name's Dak Shepard or Joe Rogan or you know uh Kelsey I mean you're you're probably not going to make a great living doing a podcast uh there's so many of them so the question is I think best answer in what is can't miss TV and in my world can't miss TV is live sports now wherever you find that TV that live sports is changing it used to be three networks then it was four with fox now it's Netflix on Christmas it's iTunes for MLS and B Major League Baseball ESPN just got out of their deal with Major League Baseball they're going to end up maybe with one of the streamers so you got to find it but to me the answer is the future of can't miss TV is live sports um so for people in this room that care about live sports that's the good news um my youngest daughter worked on the show Severance which I mentioned earlier that seems like it's you know you you don't want to miss that but you can watch it whenever you want nobody's ever gone hey don't tell me who wins the Super Bowl I'm going to watch it in two weeks so when there's that kind of an immediate reaction to something that's that important to American culture which I think the Super Bowl is the World Series is the All-Star game is the NBA Finals is that's where it is so is it evolving yes is it cord cutting is that that happen yes I mean you you can probably answer this question better than the 55-year-old in the room you guys can but you don't care if it's on Netflix do you you don't care if it's on Hulu you probably have it you can find it you YouTube whatever it is but uh for people of my age it's like man this is a major shift but my answer is where's it going if it's not live sports it's going wherever you want it whenever you want it and that means that it's missable yes sir yeah uh thank you Mr Buck appreciate it thank you everyone thank you guys