After refusing to let Randy Moss get away with mooning NFL fans back in 2005, Joe Buck seems like less of a stickler 17 years later.
Buck’s resume as a play-by-play voice is chock full of calls that help tell the story of the NFL, but his over-the-top reaction to Moss pretending to pull his pants down is one of the few blemishes on his record. On Jan. 9, 2005, with the Vikings in Green Bay for an NFC Wild Card Round game, Moss scored a touchdown and pretended to moon Packers fans.
January 9, 2005: @RandyMoss catches a TD in an NFC Wild Card Matchup in Green Bay and tops it off with a moon shot celebration that Joe Buck from finds extremely offensive. The Vikings won 31-17.
“That is a disgusting act by Randy Moss” pic.twitter.com/EJjINdkURC
— This Day In Sports Clips (@TDISportsClips) January 9, 2021
“That is a disgusting act,” Buck bemoaned after witnessing the touchdown celebration. “And it’s unfortunate that we had that on our air live, that is disgusting.”
Moss did not actually pull his pants down, he just pretended to do so. And if you believe Buck’s reaction to a pretend mooning was a little over-the-top, so does he. Buck joined SKOR North’s Vikings podcast, Purple Daily this week and during the interview, he was asked about his famous call of The Minneapolis Miracle in 2018. While reflecting on the call that ingratiated him to Vikings fans, Buck recalled being pitted against them for his harsh reaction to Moss in 2005.
“I hear that back and it kind of gives me a little bit of a jolt because I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t believe that that’s what came out of my mouth’, but I have to live with that,” Buck admitted. “And I’m not saying that I regret it, but it feels a little over the top.”
“It’s just how you react in the moment,” Buck continued. “If it were today, in a different atmosphere, I don’t think those words would have come out of my mouth. The irony of it is my wife preceded me at ESPN and of all the people I got to know best and of all the people who treated my wife the best on the set of Monday Night Football was Randy. And he and I have become really good friends. I don’t think Randy cares about it, so I guess I’ll just move on and hopefully everybody else can too.
Buck recalled former Vikings owner Red McCombs attempting to get Fox to bump their lead play-by-play voice from calling Minnesotas’ playoff game. Fox declined McCombs’ plea without paying it much attention, but Buck admitted there was a moment where he wondered if he was going to get booted from Minnesota’s Divisional Round game.
“I’m not gonna lie, it was rough. I don’t like that. I’m a pleaser,” Buck told Purple Daily. “I like everyone to like me and when you get into the boiler like that, it’s like, ‘Eh, man, it’s gonna be hard to show my face.’ But you grow up, and you move on and you learn and it’s all a part of my history, which I wouldn’t trade for anything.”
If calling Moss’s mooning “disgusting” was an over-the-top reaction, attempting to get Buck removed from Fox’s lead broadcast booth during the NFL Playoffs over the issue was a hilariously outrageous response.
