Joe Buck and Al Michaels are both at the top of the broadcasting profession.
Buck is the play-by-play guy for Monday Night Football on ESPN. Michaels holds the same duty for Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime Video.
Michaels, 81, has come under criticism this season for calls that fans would describe as less-than-enthusiastic.
Buck has heard that noise. He doesn't like it.
Buck appeared on The Sports-Casters podcast and chimed in.
“It just drives me nuts because I’m such a fan of Al’s,” Buck said. “As I’ve said, all I have to do is hear his voice, him say one word. I’m like, OK, I’m watching that game because it’s important, and if he’s there, it’s an important game. I think he’s phenomenal. I still think he’s phenomenal. I listen to him, and I marvel at what he’s able to do. I just think he’s fantastic.”
Michaels is set to continue doing Thursday Night Football next season.
“I always felt, I’ll go as long as I can, or I’m wanted, but I have to be able to know that I can do the game at the level that satisfies me,” Michaels told Chris Russo earlier in January. “If I feel not what I have been or the way I perceive myself to have been, that’ll be time to step away, I don’t feel that way right now.”
Buck, for his part, has also dealt with criticism about his excitement level through the years.
“It’s like you want screaming and yelling, but ‘Don’t do it too much’ because then you’re over the line for some people,” Buck said. “You’re trying to thread a certain needle. The needle’s moving, and you’re trying to get the thread through that little hole. I dealt with that forever, and I get it to some degree, but it’s really in the fan’s ear, and I don’t need a broadcaster screaming and yelling to tell me that it was a big moment. I know when a big moment is happening on my television.”
It'll certainly be something everyone is keeping an eye on next season.
If Michaels comes out of the gates of the new season still operating at what fans perceive as a less-than-ideal energy level, it could be a long season on Thursday Night Football.
Buck will still be watching with great respect for one of the best to ever do it.
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