Joe Buck understands the prestige of Monday Night Football and some of the iconic announcers who held the gig before him.
Maybe that’s why Buck offered viewers his best impression of Al Michaels Monday night. Or maybe, Buck just didn’t want to openly discuss betting lines during ESPN’s Monday Night Football broadcast.
Leading the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 24-12 with less than two minutes remaining in the game, the Green Bay Packers had the ball on 4-yard line. After wide receiver Christian Watson missed an opportunity to catch a touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers, running back Aaron Jones rushed for a first down, but he was stopped short of the end zone.
Rodgers proceeded to end the game by kneeling three times rather than attempting to punch the ball across the goal line for a touchdown, meaning the Packers would win 24-12, a point total of 36. As the Packers bypassed the chance to tack on more points, Buck couldn’t help from subtly referencing the 39.5 over/under line for the game.
Joe Buck doing his best Al Michaels impression referencing the 39.5 total pic.twitter.com/FZqLiCSvKr
— ACL-Sports.com®–Sports Investor (@TheRealMrACL) December 20, 2022
“There may be a few people out there disappointed that the Green Bay Packers are not going for more points at this point,” Buck casually noted. “And they might go back to that miscommunication on the part of the rookie Christian Watson and think what might have been.”
No announcer has been better at artfully referencing betting lines without actually mentioning betting lines than Al Michaels over the years. And Buck did a solid job of honoring the former Monday Night Football play-by-play voice. But as Buck gave his best Michaels impression in the year 2022, it bears wondering why we still need to be coy about sports gambling.
After fighting it for decades, the NFL finally embraced sports betting in recent years. The NFL has partnered with sportsbooks, ESPN has its own gambling shows, yet we still can’t just say the over/under was 39.5 during Monday Night Football? Everyone used to be tantalized by Michaels mentioning the forbidden betting lines on a national broadcast, but those subtle references have lost their luster now that it’s a legalized practice. Alas, the benefits of legalized sports betting for fans probably still outweighs the loss of getting excited about creative over/under references during game broadcasts.
[ESPN]
