Joe Buck will not be at Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, and that’s great news for him.
Buck joined The Opening Drive with hosts Randy Karraker and Brooke Grimsley Monday morning on 101 ESPN in St. Louis to discuss the Super Bowl, among other topics. During the interview, Karraker asked Buck whether he had any interest in attending a Super Bowl that he was not calling. Buck admitted he went to the Super Bowl in Los Angeles as a spectator because his daughters wanted to go, but Vegas is not a city that will lure the renowned broadcaster in for the event.
“I do not have any desire to be there,” Buck said of Super Bowl LVIII. “It’s a lot of logistics. It’s a lot of congestion. I’m just not that way, I’m not looking for the Maxim party and going out all night. It’s just not my thing and you combine that with Vegas…there’s going to be some story, there’s gonna be something that happens because it’s Vegas and it won’t stay in Vegas. There’s gonna be a big something that happens. I don’t know what it is. I have no idea. That is going to be a mess, in my mind.”
That probably won’t make the NFL too happy, having arguably their most recognizable voice predict some sort of controversy or mayhem surrounding the Super Bowl. While there are undoubtedly a lot of fans excited about going to the game and all of its trimmings because of Vegas, Buck clearly isn’t one of them.
Buck didn’t expand on what the “big something” or “mess” might be, and we certainly don’t want to speculate on what he may have been alluding to. But there are obvious reasons why the NFL, for decades, essentially attempted to pretend Vegas and gambling didn’t exist before ultimately deciding to embrace them both.
Even without Vegas, going to a Super Bowl as a spectator sounds like a lot of work for someone like Buck. It would probably be hard for him to attend the week or the game without getting inundated by requests. Buck hasn’t been on the call for the game since Super Bowl LIV on Feb. 2, 2020. And he won’t be calling another one until February 2027, when ABC airs its first Super Bowl since 2006.
[101 ESPN]
