For the first time since 2002, Fox aired a Super Bowl without Joe Buck on the call. And the renowned play-by-play voice admits it was weird.
Thursday afternoon, Buck joined The Michael Kay Show on ESPN Radio in New York to remember his former broadcast partner Tim McCarver. But before the interview ended, Kay asked Buck about tuning into Fox to watch his successors, Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen, welcome more than 100 million people to Super Bowl LVII.
Joe Buck admits not calling Super Bowl LVII was a little “weird,” via The Michael Kay Show pic.twitter.com/KeGhgA33qa
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“They did a great job, which I knew they would,” Buck said of Burkhardt and Olsen. “They were in great hands with Rich Russo, our director, and Richie Zyontz, our producer. And those guys are friends of mine.”
Buck spent 28 years with Fox, calling 24 World Series and six Super Bowls. But after he and Troy Aikman left the network to bring credence to ESPN’s Monday Night Football booth, Fox turned to Burkhardt and Olsen as their lead NFL broadcast team in a Super Bowl year.
“I’m just proud of them,” Buck added. “I said it at the time when I moved over to ESPN, to get out of the way of somebody like Kevin [Burkhardt] and to get out of the way of somebody like Joe [Davis] on the baseball side, was kind of the untalked about silver lining. It was something that gave me great pleasure.
“So yeah, I watched it. Was it weird? A little bit,” Buck admitted. “Because I think it’s only human nature to go, ‘Nobody can survive if the great Joe Buck isn’t there.’ But everything moves on, and they’ve moved on. And I’ve moved on. And Troy’s moved on. And I think everybody’s happy with what they have and where they are…It’s awkward because you’re not there anymore…but as far as the individuals involved, I couldn’t have been happier.”
Buck already admitted not calling the World Series last season was “really weird,” despite stating he no longer has the baseball itch. So it shouldn’t be shocking to see him share a similar sentiment over the Super Bowl, a sport he still has the itch for.
But the 53-year-old Buck hasn’t called the last Super Bowl of his broadcasting career. ESPN and ABC have joined the Super Bowl rotation and are on the schedule for the 2026 and 2030 seasons. Buck’s current contract with ESPN runs through 2027.
