As the voice of Monday Night Football on ESPN, Joe Buck gets exclusive interviews with the head coaches and star players of each team in the lead-up to that week’s game. Heading into a potential Super Bowl preview with the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Philadelphia Eagles this week, Buck explained the differences between MVP candidates Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts, and what makes each star special.
Starting with Mahomes, Buck explained the star quality shows up even in a sitdown with broadcasters like he and partner Troy Aikman.
“He’s everything you want in a star quarterback. If I’m a Chiefs fan, you know why that guy is beloved,” Buck said on the Sports Media with Richard Deitsch podcast. “He’s unique, he’s a unicorn on the field, and he’s very giving off the field. He’ll tell you what’s going on.”
With Hurts, it takes more to get the good stuff.
“Jalen is more tight, more closed-off,” Buck explained. “But he will give you some great stuff.”
For example, Aikman lead Hurts with a question about traits he got from playing under Alabama head coach Nick Saban. Despite Aikman’s good-natured question, Hurts pushed back quickly and let the ESPN crew know he instead got those skills from his father and high school coach — not Saban.
“To me, that’s really revealing,” the always-honest Buck said. “It boils down to, are these guys going to give you anything that you haven’t read in the paper? And sometimes they will give you stuff that you can’t say but you can use it as background information.”
As we head toward a potential Super Bowl rematch, Buck showed why Mahomes and Hurts dominate. They are brilliant football minds and dedicated leaders.
“Hurts is good, but you’ve got to work at it,” Buck added. “Mahomes is an easy conversation.”
This week on Monday Night Football, Buck and Aikman will get to illustrate the rival QBs’ greatness.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.