Troy and Buck go to Monday Night Football
A rather interesting piece of news got lost in the QB whirlwind these past two weeks. Troy Aikman signed a deal with ESPN to work the Monday Night Football booth. End of an era at FOX. Not too long afterward, it turns out Joe Buck is going to join him. That was honestly bigger news, because Buck was basically the Fox announcer. He’s the big name. He’s the guy. He’s not only the voice of Fox NFL Sunday, he’s the voice of Fox Major League Baseball in the postseason. Now him and his buddy Aikman are the new Monday Night Football booth. It’s gonna be weird. I honestly do not remember who the Fox A team was before these two showed up. Although I’ve mocked them a lot, and even softened up on them in my old age, they are honestly just…going to a different channel to probably be the exact same crew.
Even if you hate Buck and Aikman there’s no getting around the fact that this is an upgrade for ESPN. In the same way I can’t remember when Fox didn’t have these two in the booth, I can’t remember the last time MNF had a good booth to begin with. ESPN’s absolute failure to make a compelling group of people commentate football has been an absolute disaster for years. Each year seemed to have a different cast of morons. They’d either be absolutely stupid (Booger) or utterly forgettable (whoever was there this year). The only good MNF production in the last decade for MNF is the silly 3d graphics they do once a game. Those are a good level of stupid. Everything else has been garbage. Remember the Booger Mobile? I do. ESPN sucks.
Bringing these two steady, if dull, hands into the booth is a good move. I’m curious how much will change. If they decide to get a little too cute, or if ESPN lets them a bit loose. I would prefer a slightly looser Buck and Joe. The few times they loosen up and crack jokes, it works. Aikman still slurs his words and sounds lost far too often, and Joe is a promo machine, but I’ve come to appreciate the chemistry that can exist between two friends who have worked together for so long that one of them has absolutely 100% held the other one as they threw up on the toilet.
Fox is replacing Buck with Kevin Burkhardt. Burkhardt is perfectly fine. No complaints. He doesn’t stand out to me but he seems fine as a play-by-play guy. Rumors seem to be that he’ll partner with Greg Olsen, who is good and a welcome young voice. There’s also a chance it’s Aqib Talib, but Talib is kind of unconventional in the booth and I doubt Fox goes for that for the A-team.
I’m still going to watch the Manningcast instead of Buck/Troy anyway. For me, a guy who watches too much football, the unconventional and conversational sidecast is far more interesting than another group of dudes doing a slightly different spin on the same job, but the Manningcast isn’t for everyone and works better as a side option. The Manningcast could also stand to improve some things. But for the games without the Mannings, at least the MNF booth will be tolerable again.
…Dave, did you miss a speech bubble in Mickey Mouse’s second panel? Joe Buck’s (initially) railing against a recruitment proposition that was never made in the first place…
I forgot to turn the text layer back on, fixed
I’ve had my complaints about Buck-Aikman, but I agree that this is a good move for ESPN. This will be the first time that they have a crew that actually knows what they’re doing since Tirico-Gruden, and Joe Buck has vastly improved as a play-by-play guy over the past decade. It’s gonna be very strange not hearing him call the World Series though. His football commentary is alright but he’s great for calling the MLB.
I was hoping this would be the impetus for FOX to finally let Gus Johnson start calling big time NFL games again. They let him get back into it last year though it was only as a D-Team guy with Aqib Talib, since they still have him as the man for their CFB Big 10 matchups. Maybe one day we’ll get to hear him go insane during the NFC Championship and/or Super Bowl. I need it so bad.
Did you know Juan Soto is only 20?
Mickey Mouse just glares and psychic Joe Buck immediately knows what he means. Please don’t fix it.
Pretty sure the earlier Fox A team was the Madden/Summerall combo Fox brought over wholesale in the mid-90’s. Though it could be there was a season or two gap before the Troy/Buck pairing and I do recall that Summerall retired a few seasons before Madden left Fox.
This situation works out pretty well. No longer have to deal with Buck/Troy during the late NFC game on Sundays, can watch the Manningcast instead on most Mondays as I already started to do, and won’t have to suffer through a double dose of Joe Buck in October. Honestly he’s a lot easier to tune out in Football than Baseball, which might actually be a credit to Troy Aikman being able to even out the broadcast. Speaking of which I never got the sense that Aikman particularly liked Buck, but it could be I just read it wrong.
It was Madden-Summerall as FOX’s #1 until Madden left for ABC. Also, Summerall didn’t retire at that point. He was the #4 guy with Brian Baldinger in 2002 (most notably getting the game where Emmitt broke Walter’s record), did a few ESPN Sunday Night Football games in early 2004 to substitute for Mike Patrick, and did the cotton bowl until 2009.
Somehow Mickey Mouse just giving a stank face and Buck knowing that that means makes this comic better
My head canon for TDP comics will always have The Mouse giving silent stank face. #RestoreTheOriginalCut
Most accurate portration of Disney yet
After years of hating on Joe Buck, I find that I’ll miss him now that he’s gone…
…or not really. The best announce team can only improve the experience ever so slightly, and poor announcers are easily circumvented.
I’ll repeat my issues with the Manningcast again: Peyton and Eli talking football is good and fun. Peyton and Eli talking OVER football I’m trying to watch, on a marginalized screen because their big dumb faces are taking up space is bad.
Put the Manningcast on TNF or some really terrible middle of the afternoon game. MNF is supposed to be one of the marquee matchups of the week. I’m very interested in SEEING FOR MYSELF what is happening, and not listening to Peyton tell me what he sees happening.
While MNF has lucked into more good games the last season or so I think it’s more a result of parity (particularly before the flex scheduling weeks start) than being intended as marquee match-ups. ESPN tells itself it’s still intended as one of the big games, and they bring up highlights from when the two teams faced off on a Monday night in 1984, etc. as if it was at all relevant. MNF since it swapped places and networks with SNF is kind of like a small city that makes a big deal about having been the original state capital until it got moved away in 1830-something.
I also think the fact that Disney got the Super Bowl again is what motivated the Buck-Aikman deals. Can’t let the shit triumvirate ruin the Super Bowl.
Troy-Buck sucks.
Joe Buck is boring.
Troy only knows how to shoehorn the Cowboys into every game.
Also Joe Buck pissed in a kid’s shoes in middle school. (Yes, this happened.)
I’m hoping FOX uses Gus Johnson a little more this season. He kills it every Saturday in the Big 12/Big 10 morning games, it’d be great if he was one of the top guys in the NFL again.
That assumes that you don’t get instantly nauseous listening to Joe Buck. If the Manningcast isn’t on every MNF game, I’ll be tuning in on ESPN Deportes.
I’m guessing that Buck is not doing any of the baseball season for FOX this year… meaning that the last time his voice will be heard on the network is his “play-by-play” of their domino rally competition Domino Masters.
Haha
I actually don’t mind Buck to be honest, it’s Aikman that I dislike. He’s just so chronically wrong about everything, and always takes needless shots at players.
Side note, anyone notice that Jim Tomsula The Mic Rula is back with the Rhein Fire as the HC?
If Troy is a German, what would his name be?
Troy Eichmann.
You gota “germanize” the first name too…. Theodor Eichmann.
Joking aside, Aikman might very well be one of those english (miss) spellings of names that sometimes got handed out to immigrants on Ellis Island. Its pretty much the exact match of how an american/english speaker with no clue how to pronounce Eichmann would try to say it. By chance any Cowboys Superfans here that know about Troys family heritage?
re hover text: Al Micheals-Dan Fouts-Dennis Miller three-way.