Michelle Beisner did not want to date Joe Buck feeling he was “smug and arrogant”

ESPN’s Michelle Beisner and Fox’s Joe Buck have been married since 2014 and dated for a year before that. But when Buck originally wanted to ask her out in 2012, Beisner who was working for NFL Network at the time was reluctant. She had a boyfriend and didn’t want to date a fellow broadcaster. But when her then co-worker Rich Eisen told her that someone wanted her number, Beisner was ready to shoot the request down:

“Don’t you want to know who it is?” Eisen asked.

“I started rattling off names,” Beisner said last month. “I was like, ‘Troy Aikman.’ ‘Cris Collinsworth.’ ‘Al Michaels,’ I even said.”

“No,” Eisen said.

“Please don’t say it’s Joe Buck,” Beisner said.

“Well,” Eisen said, “it is Joe Buck and why would you say that?”

Beisner told the Bryan Curtis of The Ringer (which has launched today, by the way) that she felt Buck seemed like a nice guy, but also had a look that came off “smug and arrogant” due to his 2008 National Car Rental ad.

Well, cut to 2013 and by that time, Beisner had overcome her feelings about Buck and began dating him:

By the 2013 Super Bowl, Beisner was single. She and Buck started dating. The following year, they were married in Cabo San Lucas in front of God and Troy Aikman. (It was Buck’s second marriage.) Beisner now attests that Buck “is the furthest thing from arrogant or smug that any human being could be. I mean, the complete and opposite end of the spectrum.”

And as you know by now, they’re married and living in St. Louis. But if Beisner hadn’t overcome her first impression, she might not have gone forward and begun dating Buck then eventually marrying him. As they say, first impressions are everything, but sometimes, a second opinion can make or break a decision.

[The Ringer/Photo courtesy Michelle Beisner]