Joe Buck Twitter (@Buck) is quite the polarizing figure. The same can be said of Johnny Manziel, so when Buck made his scathing critique of Johnny Manziel, both the love and the hate erupted like a volcano.
(You’ll want to hear this podcast by the way, of Joe Buck articulating his views on Johnny Football). So why exactly is there such a Buck backlash?
Adnan Virk (@AdnanESPN) wears many hats at ESPN: SportsCenter, NBA, college football, college basketball etc. Anchoring Baseball Tonight is one of his primary gigs, and he really knows his MLB. Virk was gracious enough to sit down with me for an exclusive chat about a whole host of topics, including Joe Buck.
The podcast of the interview is below, the broadcasters and Buck talk begins around the 2:00 mark:
Virk said an ESPN anchor joked with him about how Virk doesn’t often get that excited talking to athletes anymore. He’s more excited when he meets the people who talk for a living. I couldn’t agree more. A media day where you interview analysts and broadcasters is ten zillion times more interesting than a media day where you interview athletes and coaches. I’d also much rather sit down with someone who is paid to be interesting, instead of someone who is paid to be interesting athletically, but also boring verbally.
“It’s cool when you meet broadcasters because these are the people that you grew up admiring and watching, when I got to talk to Joe Buck I was over the moon,” Virk said.
“They were joking that for a Christmas present, who do you want to talk to, Shaq or Tiger Woods or Roger Federer, who I love.
“No, I’ll take Joe Buck, we got Joe Buck on the phone for 15 minutes and it was awesome, I was thrilled.”
“You have to have those milestones and moments that you’re never going to forget.”
Virk told Buck about how re-watched the 1991 World Series. However, you need to listen to the audio for that, because the beauty of that story would be lost in transcribing it. So Virk is a great example of the people who love Buck and why.
Now we shift to the other polarity of opinion on Joe Buck.
“I asked him how do you deal with all the haterade, because he gets smoked by people on Twitter, I have friends that are huge sports fans and they can’t stand Joe Buck. I never understood it, I think he’s sensational, but he had a great answer:
“I think people love American success stories, but I don’t think they like second generation success stories, and for a lot of people I’m always going to be my father’s son and there’s a lot of jealousy, and people think it’s nepotism, and it’s fine.
“It’s their problem not mine.”
“I don’t read my Twitter or get caught up in that stuff. If 14-year-old Billy is going to tell me I stink, I’m okay with that. If Jim Nantz or Al Michaels is going on Twitter and telling me I suck it’s a different issue.”
Joe Buck seems incredibly self-aware (as is his Twitter bio), and that was a fantastic anecdote by Adnan Virk. Being the son of legendary sportscaster Jack Buck does explain the backlash. Of course, you have the more obvious reasons: Joe Buck gets to watch and opine on the biggest sporting events in the world.
He gets paid handsomely to do so.
His wife is a former model and Denver Broncos cheerleader.
So there’s plenty of reason to be jealous of Joe Buck, but please don’t take it out on him! Like Chris Rock says, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive Inc.
You can read Banks’ feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)