On Thursday morning, NFL announcer Joe Buck went into detail about his controversial hot mic comments on pregame flyovers during the latest episode of his podcast.
Over the weekend, NFL announcers Buck and former Dallas Cowboys star Troy Aikman caught flack for their comments during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Green Bay Packers matchup. The broadcasters were caught on a hot microphone bashing military flyovers during NFL pregame ceremonies, and now Buck has spoken out on the incident on his Daddy Issues podcast.
The two commentators came under fire from many who thought the duo was mocking the military. However, Buck says their comments in the clip were a follow up to a previous conversation.
Buck Goes Into Detail About the Duo’s Controversial Comments
The longtime commentator said the pair was referencing a conversation from dinner the night before Sunday’s game with their crew. Buck explained that the two were mocking their crew and their previous conversation, not the military.
“So I see this, and Troy in the microphone is repeating something that he heard the night before from an unnamed person on our crew. This person happens to be very far left and said, ‘Well, under Biden-Harris, you know that’s not going to happen.’ And Troy was repeating that watching the flyover,” Buck explained of the situation. “So they clipped that as if he’s saying that he’s a Harris-Biden fan. But he’s repeating something that somebody said the night before, which is unbelievable.”
“If you know Troy at all, he was being 100 percent sarcastic,” Buck continues. “Repeating for the person in the truck to hear, like ‘Ha, ha, ha.’ And then I go into a 1950s voice, like, ‘There’s your hard-earned tax dollars at work,’ or whatever.”
“Again, repeating parts of conversations to our crew. They clipped that and then run a headline that Troy Aikman and Joe Buck bash flyovers. Which it had nothing to do with any of that,” Buck said emphatically. “And it stirs people up. And words get weaponized. Then people have to weigh in. ‘Oh, well, screw those guys. They don’t like the military.’ What?!”
The Announcer Shares Personal Anecdote for First Time
Afterward explaining the details of the controversial comments, Buck then went on to share some personal details on his family. The announcer said he has never talked about his family’s military history publicly. However, he shared them so the public knows he fully supports the American military.
“My dad earned a purple heart in World War II, was shot in Germany and was sitting in a hospital in Paris when WWII ended and saw Charles de Gaulle speak in Paris at the end of WWII. My grandfather was on a battleship in the Pacific in WWII. That’s my mom’s dad. I come from all that. Right on the down the line, that’s where my sensibilities are,” Buck revealed.
He then circles back to his frustrations over the incident and says the duo’s flyover comments were “totally out of context.”
“It was a private conversation and having it with our group. Then it gets sold as if those were our words, which is fine. It’s kind of dead and buried now, but that’s what happened,” Buck says. “And the frustrating part is if that was a 10-second window into my soul, that would be unfortunate. But when it’s not actually representing what actually happened, that makes it doubly frustrating because people are getting something totally out of context.”
[H/T SI]
