Joe Buck: Troy Aikman is ‘intense’

If Troy Aikman ever seems like he’s having fun on Monday Night Football, it’s because Joe Buck is working hard to lighten the mood.

Buck joined Ryan Clark, Channing Crowder and Fred Taylor on The Pivot podcast this week. And during the interview, Clark noted Buck’s broadcast partner of 24 years, Troy Aikman, isn’t the warmest of personalities, wondering how they could have fun in the booth.

“He’s intense,” Buck admitted of Aikman. “This is Year 24. And I’m the one guy that can pop that. I’m the one guy that can go, ‘Hey, let’s have some fun.’ And it’s up to me to make him laugh. It is my job, when we get in the booth, to lighten the mood. And he knows that, by the way. This is not me talking out of school. He knows that if I get him to laugh, I’ve done my job, and it makes us sound better. He’s got a great laugh. And he’s got a really good sense of humor, but you gotta get there. And you’re right, in that he’s very intense.”

Buck recognizes there are times where Aikman is too tight or intense in the minutes before the cameras turn on for a broadcast. To lighten the mood, Buck said he’ll call for Aikman’s attention and just flash him the finger, sing something or tell a joke.

“It gets him lightened up,” Buck said. “I just joke around and it’s gotta drive him nuts. I’m sure there are many times where he’s like, ‘Will this guy just shut up?’ But all the while I’m doing it to get him to just have some fun and realize that we’re calling a game for the next couple of hours. And if we can’t have fun doing this, then we stink.”

Buck also previously said he used to keep tequila, Grand Marnier and grapefruit juice on hand in the booth as a reminder for them to relax and have fun when calling a game.

One criticism of Buck earlier in his career is that he was too tight. And not only has Buck loosened up as a broadcaster, but he’s loosened up to the point where he’s now in charge of lightening the mood for Aikman as well. Maybe it was the tequila, maybe it was Buck singing, joking or giving Aikman the middle finger. Whatever it was, it worked.

Buck and Aikman sound like they’re having fun when calling a game together. They sound relaxed. They sound like they’re close friends calling a game, and that chemistry has resonated to make them one of the most successful broadcast pairings in NFL history.