Joe Buck is staying busy—and hungry—during football’s offseason.
The ESPN announcer has taken up a side gig as guest-host of Good Morning America from Wednesday to Friday this week. And on the July 23rd broadcast, one of his responsibilities included learning how to fold a perfect burrito.
Alongside regular host Robin Roberts, Buck received instruction on the best burrito-folding practices from celebrity chef Dan Churchill. The polarizing play-by-play man experienced a “break through” of meat and cheese on his first folding attempt, but successfully secured his burrito on the second try.
Buck isn’t the only ESPN talent to visit ABC’s flagship morning program as of late. NBA Today and NBA Countdown host Malika Andrews also guest-hosted earlier this month. Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports reported that fellow ESPN personalities Elle Duncan and Laura Rutledge have “had discussions” to set up GMA hosting dates for later this summer, too.
Sports personalities have a long history of crossing over into traditional news coverage—Michael Strahan has been a primary host of GMA for years—but these back-to-back assignments signal that the trend is accelerating.
The gigs also suggest that Disney is especially invested in broadening the national profile of their sports talent.
While an established personality like Joe Buck likely won’t be on the morning show (and burrito-making) beat long-term, such a move is much more probable for still-rising stars like Andrews, whose ESPN contract is set to expire later this year.
At 30 years old, Andrews is a Gen Z-millennial cusper. And as media spoils increasingly shift toward independent creators, she may very well be one of the last capital J-journalists to follow a semi-traditional broadcast career path.
