The Press Box - Joe Buck on Damar Hamlin, Year 1 of ‘Monday Night Football,’ and Dreaming About His Dad

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

Bryan is joined by ESPN’s Joe Buck to discuss his perspective on Damar Hamlin’s injury in the Bills-Bengals game. They touch on the booth’s immediate reaction to Hamlin’s injury, the responsibility of an announcer in moments of uncertainty, and how the players and coaches handled the situation. Later, they revisit Buck’s first year on ‘Monday Night Football,’ discuss preparation for the upcoming playoff game between Tampa Bay and the Dallas Cowboys, and recall his weekly dreams with visits from his late father. Host: Bryan Curtis Guest: Joe Buck Associate Producer: Erika Cervantes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are certain moments and words that shaped a new era in pro wrestling. Austin 316 says I just whipped your ass. Brett screwed breath. Die, Rocky, die. Introducing the book of wrestling, 25 catchphrases that explain the attitude era. Tune in as we relive one of the most exciting, intense, and over-the-top times in WWE, with new interviews with the voices that made the promos, calls, and catchphrases into history. Listen now.

Hello, media consumers. Welcome to the press box. Brian Curtis of the ringer here, along with producer Erica Servantes. We got one more podcast this week. The guest is ESPN's Joe Buck. This Monday, Buck and Troy Aitman and Lisa Salters are going to be calling the Cowboys Buccaneers playoff game on ESPN. We talked all about Buck's first year as a member of that Monday night football crew.

But as you'll remember, Buck was also behind the microphone last week in Cincinnati. when Bill's safety, DeMar Hamlin, went into cardiac arrest. Buck wound up playing a very different role that night. So I was interested in what he saw, what he heard, and whether there was anything he said on air that night that he wishes he'd said differently in retrospect. Here's Joe Buck. All right, Joe, before we talk Monday Night Football,

I want to ask you a few questions about the Bill's Bengals game last week. We have gotten to know so much about Damar Hamlin, his life and background over the last week and a half. How much did you know about Damar Hamlin when that game started? Yeah, that's a good question. I said this to somebody else, unrelated, obviously, to our podcast. I didn't know much about him at all. You know, I knew that he was playing for the injured Micahide.

I knew that, you know, when we talked to Leslie Frazier, he talked a lot about DeMar and about, you know, how well he had played in my life. Micah's absence other than that, I mean, knowing much about who the person was, was basically zero, which, you know, now we all know who was under that helmet and what that person is all about. And, man, I mean, there's so many, someday I feel like I'll look back on these last couple of weeks and think about what, that experience was like and really dive through it. It's still kind of a blur to me on many levels. And yet every moment is still pretty crystal clear with the chronology of it all. And I know you've got a million questions about it. I have a million questions about it.

But I think the main takeaway from your question is we know a hell of a lot more about somebody that deserved for us to know more about the person before this tragedy happened. And I've just, I've been in awe of the response and everything I've gotten to know about Demar since. So 558 left in the first quarter of that game. Hamlin collapses on the field. No one knows yet the seriousness of what has happened. And ESPN goes to commercial.

What was happening with you and Troy and the guys in the truck during that first commercial break? It was, you know, you hate to say this because it's a serious situation no matter what the degree of the situation was or could be, but it was pretty business as usual. You know, you go into commercial, you know, and any league that you broadcast for, any network endeavor, you've got to get in and out of your breaks or you're going to miss, you're going to miss things. So there's not a lot of time to linger and hang on that before we go to commercial. And then commercial, we look at the replay of exactly what happened. And really the only part that we looked at and really could see because by that point, once we had already looked at the replay, players were gathered around. And it was relatively tight around DeMar.

But just seeing him absorb the hit, get up, go back down after initially standing up, And as I started to say, you know, you feel terribly even saying this, but you're conditioned to, oh, my gosh, this is just a horrendous head issue, some sort of concussion or something. And, you know, he was basically knocked out. And that's kind of the assumption I think we were working on in the early part of that commercial break. And then as time went on and momentum built with what was going on with him on the field, I think it became really obvious. to all of us that this was not your typical situation. Was there a moment when you realized that? Yeah, I mean, I think when you start to see those around him react the way they were reacting,

and that grew also. That wasn't initially where you saw these looks on players' faces that made, you know, the look on Josh Allen's face is a look I'll never forget. But, you know, you started to sense that this was something that was a little bit next level. And I think when it really hit home was obviously when we were seeing with our naked eye, not from even camera shots, them working on him and giving him CPR. You know, that's nothing that I don't think I've ever seen that before. I certainly don't want to see it again.

and seeing the intensity with which they were giving that CPR is something that, you know, you don't really forget. I don't think I will just because of the frantic nature of what was going on in front of everybody. You could see that with your own eyes or with cameras. Yeah, I think, you know, I talked to Jimmy Platt, our director for a long time and about this when we all got together in Jacksonville last week. And, you know, he was prepared. And he's a guy who, by the way, you know, I learned more about Jimmy.

He's a guy who has given CPR himself while surfing and somebody was dragged onto the beach and everybody's staring at each other like, what do we do? And he jumped in there and gave CPR. And he said, as a director, what he really wants to do is go extremely slow and go wide. and if you do have a shot like of Josh Allen or any of the other players reacting to what they're seeing with their teammate, don't hang on that shot for a long time. Establish it, move on.

And it was good to know that he had a plan. You know, I can't say that you ever have a plan as the play-by-play announcer. You know, you're going fast and you're trying to get all these names and numbers. and you're trying to be on top of the action and you see this completion to T. Higgins and then all of a sudden, you know,

once you're in a commercial break and then whatever transpired after, you start to realize that your job in that moment has changed. And, you know, I was so glad that Jimmy walked me through what his thoughts were because I think verbally, if there's any correlation we drawn, I mean, I feel like that's kind of how I went and you would have to go verbally

because you just don't know. you don't know what's going on down there. We're not getting real-time updates. So you're just going from what you see with your eyes because the cameras pull away. You know, when you know it's a situation that is that intense, and I think for the decency of the person and the privacy of the person,

even though this is happening on a field of, you know, at an NFL stadium with 65,000 fans around and however many cameras we have on a Monday night, that person and that situation deserves as much privacy as you can give it. So they pull the cameras away. And the only thing that Troy and John Perry and I could see up there is what we could see with our eyes, which would be no different than somebody seated at a certain height in that stadium. Because, as you know, the players gathered around and kind of made a human wall around all the activity that was going on with the Mar.

You told viewers at home that he was receiving CPR after, I think, the third commercial that you guys had taken. Was there a lag between you being able to see that happening on the field and you delivering that information to the public, just knowing that as soon as I say this, everybody at home is going to be thinking about this completely differently? Yes. Yeah. I wanted to be really sure that what I saw was actually what was happening. The worst thing you can do, I mean, you take something on a small level. And you're taught as a kid, you know, when you get into broadcasting, don't make assumptions about injuries. And we're not talking about something of this degree.

We're taught, you know, there have been many times where I've seen a guy limp off the field. And you're like, well, he's, you know, he's obviously down with a leg injury, be it ankle or knee or whatever. And then you read the next day that it was a dislocated shoulder. I mean, you can't make that assumption or. really any. So because we weren't in there and because nobody's saying anything and rightly so to give us the network real-time updates along those lines, I just wanted to be sure. And I think I kind of took a straw poll around those on my headset, whether it's the guys in the booth, you know, Phil and Jimmy in the truck, Lisa down on the sideline, they were giving them CPR, right? I mean,

that's, it's funny how your brain starts to work and you're like, right, it's CPR. Okay, that's what that's called. And that's what we just saw. And so, yeah, I wanted to be 100% sure that if I said that, that is what happened. Because as soon as you utter those words, all of us sitting at home go, oh, wait, this is not a conventional football injury. This is now a matter of life and death. Yeah. That's happening before us. Yeah. And I realize the power. of that, whether it doesn't matter who's sitting there, saying it, the conversation and the thoughts and the prayers and everything else that follows changes the minute that sentence comes out of your mouth. So that was certainly, I mean, you don't want to be wrong about anything,

but you sure is heck don't want to be wrong about that. Does the idea of a catastrophic injury sits somewhere in your head when you're calling a football game? No, it never has. I don't think it's ever been in my mind like, you know, well, you better be, you better be prepared in case something along these lines happens. I, I've never gone there mentally. Maybe that's a shortcoming. I don't know. Maybe that's, well, I mean, I'm more prepared now than I think I ever have been, but you don't know until you sit there and do it. I don't know that there's any class for that. I don't know that I could describe what that feelings like to anybody when you're sitting there with a live microphone in front of your mouth and you're seeing that with your own eyes. So, yeah, I don't think I'd ever really thought of anything along the lines of catastrophic injury.

You know, I think back, I'm old enough to remember the Joe Thaisman leg break and what that did to me as a viewer watching it and how jarring that was. And, you know, you're doing TV. So I think about Kevin Harlan, who I spent a lot of time with that particular night, who I've known forever, was doing the radio that night. And what he was maybe having to describe, TV is a different thing, as we've talked about many times. So you can just let the pictures carry it. There's not much that you can or should say, in my opinion, when all that's going on. The worst thing you can do is to start speculating.

which is another word, a nicer word for guessing and trying to apply your own definitions to something that in some ways is kind of indescribable, really. So it was, yeah, it was intense. You said the words, there's really nothing to say on the air that night, at least once and maybe a couple of times.

You mentioned that the job changes in an instance like that. So what is the job as you see it in that moment? I don't know. I don't know that I have the right answer for that. I don't know that what I could conjure up right now is accurate other than I feel like, you know, once that happened and once it was obvious that this was not a normal situation, I was flooded with texts from not just friends of mine, but my daughters. And I kind of had them in the front of my mind and my family in the front of my mind and kind of how I would describe this to them and just kind of taking it step by step and not being hysterical, not being somebody who's going to start bringing in historical references of other people who have had similar situations on the field or whatever. I just don't think that's the time for that. So I think it's the answer to your question is just be a human being. You know, this is this is about

but another person who's in terrible distress down on the field. And, you know, I think, I'm sure you're going to ask me about the five-minute thing with the league. And I understand why you want to ask me that. I think the frustrating thing to me after this is kind of settled is that what took place on that field is overlooked. And that it shouldn't be. I mean, we was thinking about it today, knowing I was coming on with you. Like, we all know that Don Larson pitched a perfect game in the World Series in 1956. What we saw that night on that field in front of 60 plus thousand people in a national television audience was perfection, the way that was handled on the field.

I'm not talking about the aftermath, but being there and witnessing it and seeing the teamwork and knowing that they were prepared for that. And God knows how many times they've run through that same scenario. Well, we got to run through it again. If this happens, because I've been told by people in the medical industry that even in an emergency room, that might not have been handled as well as it was handled on that field. And that's what saved his life. That's what by them getting oxygen in him and, you know, from everybody I've talked to, and I'm the last thing from a medical expert.

but the almost immediate introduction of oxygen into his system is what has allowed him to now not only get out of Cincinnati and get to Buffalo, but get out of the hospital and Buffalo and get home. And to do that with that medical team that was down there, with that pressure, who knows how any of us would ever react in that intense of a situation. and they nailed it. And I'm just so thankful. And I know the league is and I know the Hamlin family is and the bills are and everybody is, that that was handled as well as it was on the field in serious, awful situations. And your frustration you were talking about is just that that gets overshadowed by all the other things that swirl around the game and the intrigues and stuff like that?

Yeah, I just think that that's the main story is that throughout all of this and whatever has been the recounting of things in real time and, you know, everybody wanting to assign blame and, you know, it did it take too long to cancel the game? Did the guys on TV screw it up? Did the, you know, I feel like it was handled extremely well. Not not by, I'm not talking about us. I'm talking about by the people on the field. That's like landing a plane on the Hudson in my mind. And, and, you know, that may be overstating it, but I'm not sure that it is. And I think they, that that has gotten lost a little bit. It was, you know, certainly they had their moment on the field before the game in Buffalo this past week.

And Sean McDermott talked about it in his initial press conference. But I'm just in awe of what was done on that field that night. So you mentioned that you say five minutes to warm up. That information came from John Perry, who has an open line to the league in New York. You told ESPN's Don Vanetta the other day. We were on the air for another 40 minutes. No one corrected that idea that the game would resume. no one. So let me just ask it this way. In the last week and a half, have you learned anything

about the sequence of events that night that has changed your initial impression of how things played out? No. Not at all. It is the same as that night. Yeah. I mean, I, the only thing I'll say about this, because it's a tired topic in my mind is I said what I said, we said what we said, because really it's, it's me or whoever's got the microphone in front their mouth at that moment. I'm representing ESPN. And in some ways, I'm representing the National Football League, but definitely ESPN. I stand by what I said then, and I stand by what I said about what I said then. So, I mean, there's just no, there's no other way to look at it for me. We know the players were not ready to continue playing football that night. And I don't want to

trivialize their experience with their teammate and friend, but I am interested in what you were feeling. If that game had continued, were you ready to announce football? that night? I think it would have been awkward. And I think that was the bigger point that a lot of these players, and I'm sure members of the two staffs, the coaches, were in shock. Not all of them. That's that would be, that's overstating it, I assume. But from what I saw with some warming up and others just standing there just staring off into nowhere, I was taken by the ones that were standing there and staring off into nothing. And that to me is an unofficial diagnosis of at least being stunned, if not being in shock. I don't know what that looks like, but I don't think

anybody's brain is ready to see what a lot of those players saw on that field. I mean, I didn't see it. So I don't know. I'm just, I'm going on what I've heard. We've all heard things about what was done to him on the field. I can only tell you from seeing it with my own eyes and those, uh, the assistant trainer giving CPR, it was, it was intense. And, and there were other things that happened down on that

field. So I, just, just seeing Joe Burrell warm up, the defense kind of linger back out onto the field. And then the majority of the players just, just in stunned silence, not really talking to each other, but just looking off into nowhere, that that was like, you know, I don't know. I don't see them being able to get back into that mode to play a football game, whether it's in five minutes or 50 minutes or five hours. And, yeah, to answer your question, I think it would have been awkward to say the

least, you know, for us even broadcasting, it changes your whole way of feeling in that moment. you and Troy Aikman did an interview with Scott Van Pelt from the booth there at Pancor Stadium. What did you do after that? Meaning like walking out of the stadium. Yeah. You said you visited with Kevin Harlan maybe a little bit after that. I visited with Kevin before the game. So I was, yeah, I was, you know, I don't typically, once I get to the stadium, which is three or four hours before the game, I usually just go into the booth.

And if I leave, it's because the restroom is not inside the booth. It's somewhere else. And that's why I leave. I don't mingle. My dad was a mingler. I'm not a mingler. I like going there and I kind of get the last bit of my work done, do the game and then leave. I went home. I went home. You know, I know there was some uncertainty as to, you know, if or when they were going to resume that game. in you know and it you know we finally got word later the next day that that uh that they were not going to resume play and then it was a question of are they going to push it back and play it in another time as we all know now and and i just went home i i've i went home and i had about 110 text messages that i had to that i felt like i had to return because i just i was flooded

with with people with questions and and i didn't really have any answers i I just, I walked out of that stadium, probably like any fan walked out of that stadium. Like, that was horrible what we just witnessed. And I don't know what the next steps are. Last one on this topic, as you've turned this moment over in your mind, as you mentioned earlier, have you found yourself saying, boy, I wish I had said something differently. I wish I had done something differently that night? No.

I mean, I went back and listened to some of the, of it just for my own peace of mind after the fact with with this whole thing that we were talking about. And I was like, you know, that I couldn't have told you what I said unless it was regurgitated back to me by somebody else. And I went back and watched a portion of it. And I felt, I was just proud of not me. I was proud of our entire group, the job that they did. And it includes all of that because I think the natural reaction in television is to just go, like, pedal down and let's find out, find out, find out, report, report, report. Go, go, go. And everybody just stopped and watched what was happening and just reacted off what we saw.

And there really, there wasn't a lot to say. And I'm glad that we didn't force that. Not me, that we. And so no. There's nothing that I have thought back on like, oh, I wish I had done that differently. And rare is that anyway, because you have to be honest with yourself and whether it's a home run call or a touchdown or the Randy Moss thing or whatever it is. I and anybody else who does what I do, we have to, A, live with what we do. I mean, there's no delete button.

There's no backspace, and that's the fun of it. And B, know that in that moment we were being true to whatever we were feeling or seeing or, and if it's not perfect, the Tyree catch, if it's not perfect because you don't see it all in real time with the 110 million people watching, then you live with that. And you know you did the best you could. and that's the only way that I can do my job and be able to sleep at night. Let's talk about your first year on Monday night football. I heard you were a little emotional during the Monday night opener this year,

which was Broncos versus Seahawks. Why were you emotional? Yeah, it's a good question. Because I don't have an answer. It's been how many months since then? I think the answer is, first of all, I was there with my wife, and she was doing the Monday night thing that she's done for, you know, last seven or eight years. And we've been married during that time.

And Monday nights, I'm usually the one at home, like, sweating through her reports that are going on live and hoping that she nails the landing and everything's perfect. And I'm like the stage dad over there like, come on, do it. And now I'm there with her, which was great. And then, you know, I think there was a lot of underlying. stress that I really wasn't either aware of or willing to acknowledge before I did that game. Having been at another place for whatever it was, 28 years or whatever that number is, and doing the NFL play-by-play, something that when I got hired at Fox at 94 and you've written at length about it, not about this part of it,

but when I prepared for that audition, I prepared with my dad in spring training when I was 24 years old before turning 25 that year. And that's how far back that goes. And now to pick up and leave and go to a property like Monday night football and feel like the entire network

and the whole, even though this isn't realistic, sports world or at least media sports world is looking at you like okay big boy you want to go to Monday night football let's see how you do and and not feeling like I was A out of place or B stumbling around or struggling for anything because I was comfortable after the game it was just such a let it was like a uh it was such an exhale that I went to get dinner because it was in Seattle with my wife and basically guzzling a beer and sitting there looking at her like, okay, that's behind me. And it was like, this was my new thing. And, you know, I still feel

weirdly, and I just came out of a therapy session. I haven't seen my therapist in like three months. I just walked out of this. So you're getting me at the perfect time asking me these things. But I think I had my dad in my mind and starting something new and having it feel like it's more my own. And Troy and I doing this and feeling like, yeah, everybody's talked about the money and all that other stuff, but you still got to go do the job. And I felt like the game went really well. And it was just like, okay, I just proved something to myself. And I was just emotional and overcome by it. On Halloween, you and Troy were the Canary Yellow ABC Sports Blazers made famous in the 70s

by Frank and Howard and Dandy Don. Did that feel cool or did that feel like you were wearing somebody else's clothes? No, that felt cool. That was our doing. They didn't say, hey, it's Halloween and it's ABC. So put them on, boys. We're not doing like costume show every week. So no, that was like, ah, it's Halloween.

and it's our first year and it's ABC and I think it was only ESPN that night and I was like, why don't we wear them? We've got them. I mean, it's sitting in my closet. That's what they gave us when we showed up in Bristol right after we were announced as the new Monday Night Football team. So let's put them on. I mean, I don't foresee us ever doing that again. I hope not because I've given that jacket away. So you got it. Yeah, I think we're done with that.

Who'd you give it to? My wife's uncle, he got me in a vulnerable moment, and his name's Dick Jankowski. He's well known as a radio and personality around town in like Shokopi, Minnesota, and he came through town right after that, and I was like, ah, he goes, oh, that was cool. I said, do you want it?

He's like, yeah. So I signed the chest of the blazer, and I said first time or year one ESPN and gave it to him. You didn't do an exchange like the players do on the field. He had to give you a sports jacket in return. No, because I think I can say this without upsetting him or my wife. I have not seen him wear anything that I'm dying to get my hands on. Like a gopher's sweatshirt or something?

Yeah, no, that's a return item. No, I'm good. On Monday, you've got Tampa Bay in Dallas. which is the best game of the weekend. So I do not expect Troy to mention on air that he would rather be doing a different game like he did in the playoffs. He was in that stadium for God's sake too last year

and four people know what you're talking about. But yeah, last year we're doing the game, Philly at Tampa Bay. And later that day it was going to be San Francisco at Dallas. And we came on, the game was out of hand. So we came on in our last on camera in that game. We looked ahead to that game. and I said, well, later on today,

the 49ers are playing to the Dallas Cowboys, and he went, yeah, Joe, and some of us would like to be calling that game or whatever he said. And he is, him looking at me after my reaction was like, I've never been at a loss for words coming off anything Troy said until that moment. I was like, okay, you're going there, all right.

And he said after the fact, he's like, when I saw you react that way, I thought, I may be out of a job. So it was a funny moment. It was a real moment. And now, ironically, here we are at the end of year, one at ESPN. And we're right back in that same stadium, but doing the Cowboys and Bucks. He was out of a job, just not in the way he thought about it.

Exactly. When you and Troy went to ESPN, was part of the idea that your presence would help the network get the games they wanted to get in situations like this? I think that's, you know, overstating it. this is this to me, and I've said this before, I feel like we got there maybe a year early, but it was like the bus is coming along and the door is still kind of open. So you want to get on now or you want it's like when you're in a hotel and I'll go up before I got to go to the lobby, but I haven't had the elevator come by in seven minutes and this one's going up, but I'm getting on it.

So that's kind of how it felt because next year is kind of the, you know, all this. Next year is the first year of the New Deal. There's some flex scheduling in there, and we're building toward a Super Bowl. So, you know, I think this all goes back even before us with Peyton and Eli and kind of, you know, ESPN's commitment to adding on top of these big dollars that they and Fox and CBS and NBC all give the NFL, YouTube, Amazon. And this is more of a, I think, reflection of Jimmy Patero and the powers that be there than it is us. Hopefully we don't hurt it, but I think this is bigger than us. Ryan Clark did say on first take on Monday. Thank you, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.

This is the best game we've ever had. Well, I was stunned. Somebody sent me that, and I was stunned that Ryan Clark even knew my name. So, and I swear to God, that's true. I was like, oh, Ryan Clark knows who I am. That's cool. So, yeah, I don't think that's, I think he's got to look up the, up the chain, not next to him on the same level.

I don't think, I think it's above us. Let me drag you back into the therapy session one more time. When you and I met back in 2016, you were going through this process of learning to feel more comfortable in your own skin. When did you finally feel like you had gotten fully comfortable? Man, I, me answering that would assume that I have. I don't think I ever am or will be. I think that's kind of part and parcel with being a Hall of Famer's son or child and getting into this business when I was doing it at 19. You know, ironically enough, I had lunch that day in Cincinnati before that game with my first ever baseball broadcast partner, Jim Kelch.

And I had a long walk down memory lane before I ever walked into that stadium. And it was good. It grounds you. And it reminds you of where you come from. And it's not just being Jack Buck's kid. It's putting in hours at AAA. And it's putting in hours, you know, doing the Cardinals every day and taking 2 a.m. flights and going all over the country and getting comfortable calling baseball and then figuring

out what the hell I'm doing calling the NFL when I'd never done it before and I'm 25 standing there at Soldier Field on day one at Fox. I've always been feeling in my mind at least the insecure part of me is always playing catch up and the insecure part of me is always apologetic for getting into this thing as somebody's son and knowing that my dad grew up with zero and went through World War II and only went to Ohio State on the GI Bill and, you know, made this career out of nothing. And then I'm his seventh kid and I come along at the right time in his career. And I think the best thing that ever happened for me is that I was born when my dad was, whatever he was, 46, and he was more ready to be a hands-on father. And he was never really

hands-on, but he wanted me with him. So by the time I was old enough to travel, I was in the Cardinal Charter with him. I was in the team hotel. I was in the booth. But when you have all that, there's that little part of you that I think till the day I die, I'll be telling myself I'm not good enough. I'll be telling myself that I'm only there because I'm my dad's son. I'll be telling myself, you know, all these little negative thoughts that really don't ever let me get comfortable in my own skin. It's funny. When you and Troy started doing Thursday night football for Fox back in 2018, the games were not great. Sometimes they weren't even on Fox. They were just on the NFL network. And it felt to me like you guys came into those games really.

loose and ready to have a good time and that some of that spirit that you created over there carried over into the other games you announced. I agree with that. I think one thing is just practically speaking, you know, when you do one game a week, everybody's worked forever now off the John Madden schedule. What they failed to remember is that John Madden was doing what he was doing prior to the internet. And he traveled on a bus. So, So he wasn't like able to run out of the stadium and go jump on a plane and run home. It was like, hey, I'm in the bus. I'm going to go catch a couple of minor league games and all the game on Sundays in Chicago.

I'll go there on Thursday. And I'll watch the home team practice on Friday. And then we'll all go to dinner. And then we'll wait at the team hotel for the visiting team to come in on Saturday. And we'll go there and we'll interview them. And once you start realizing that you can do these things pre-pandemic, even on Zoom calls, on conference calls, and you don't have to be there

and still get the same information, I would argue. It kind of takes it and changes it. At least it did, I think, I can speak for Troy on this. It did with me, where you just feel like when you're preparing for one game all week,

there's so much buildup. And then by the time the game comes, kind of the fun of it is a little rung out of it. And now you're doing a game, on Thursday and I was mixing in ALCS or NLCS and World Series and it's like, okay, who am I doing tonight? What sport is it? And I'm reading and trying to get ahead and I'm sitting there in the division series in my hotel room, getting ready for a football game and doing my boards for the next seven football games and meaning just at least getting the skeleton of it in there and then filling

it in as the information becomes available that given week. You have to do it more kind of by the seat of your pants. And I think that makes you more loose. It makes you more ready to go, ah, you know, let's have a little fun because we might not know everything we used to know about these teams. And that's okay. We know plenty. And nobody's seen the game we're about to see. So there's research. And I'm reading my eyes out and putting it all on these boards that I can barely read by the time I get to the game with all the prep that we do. But just do the game. And I think that's, you know, my dad did that. Sorry to drone on.

But when he was really close with this hockey player named Kelly Chase, who forever did the blues radio. But when Kelly had his first night in the broadcast, my dad went up there and said, hey, Kelly, let me see your research. And Kelly Chase, who was kind of the tough guy, the fighter guy on the team, had all these charts and numbers and lines and whatever. and my dad took it and literally threw it out of the booth. And he said, you know how to play this game. You played it forever. Watch the game and tell people what you see. And there's real value in that.

You cannot become paralyzed by information. You have to be able to let your eyes leave all the junk that you're building. And my board is going to be packed on Monday night. But I just have to be. to keep my eyes up and do the game. And I think doing multiple games a week kind of drives you to having a little bit looser feel. And that's a good thing. A couple more quick ones for you. If it's impossible. Exactly one month from today, there is going to be a Super Bowl in the Phoenix metro area that you would have been calling if you still worked at Fox. Now let's stipulate a few things.

You have a great job at ESPN. Number two, Kevin Burkhart will do a good job. You don't need to say that. How do you feel? How do you look at that game now? I'm like in the locker room. I'm cutting off the things the player's going to tell me that I know he's going to tell me. No, that's smart. Because you know, you know how I feel about Kevin and some of my closest friends are there. So yes, throw that. That's all a given. I if you want the honest answer, I'm going to, I'm going to watch the game, but I'm not, I'm not going to be in any position to write a critical column about the job that Fox and Kevin and Greg and Aaron and I just, I don't want to be in a position of just sitting it by a TV going, I could have been calling this game and, you know, what would I say here and what did they say and do the two things match up? I just, I will do it the way, I will watch it the way I was always convinced when I was doing them the way those people were watching it. And that is, I'm having fun at a party. And, and it's going to be on. And I'm going to know who won. And I'm going to have seen the big plays. But I am not going to be critically listening to any of the four or 50 people that'll be doing this game. I just,

I can't. Maybe that's a shortcoming, but I think it's, it's probably a natural reaction to just let it be. And they've moved on. And I've moved on. And I'm happy. And I'm going to assume they're all happy. And that's the way it should be. You are going to be an average fan watching the Super Bowl. Completely. An average Joe. An average Joe. Yes. I will. And I think, I think you're always, you're always unrealistic when you do those big events. thinking that everybody's hanging on your every word. And that's, you know, you can go even more in depth and go, we waste all this time on what we're going to say in the on-camera opening.

And that's the part that nobody watches or cares about. But if you make a mistake, I can tell you, and I've made plenty of them, I'm standing there with, you know, the moment Troy and I are on the, before the game, nobody cares. And that's the way you have to do the game. do a good job, get the names and numbers right, get the right team winning at the end, and be realistic. Nobody's hanging on your every word.

In fact, a lot of people are there just for the commercials. No, you realize people that aren't in your business or my business, just think of this stuff way differently. They do. And I, you know, to go back to what I said at the beginning of that, I watch a game and I'm calling it in my head. And I don't want to be doing that. I want to just be around people.

and talking. Oh, look at that play. Yeah. Wow. Touchdown. And then go back to my conversation. I love to call my uncles after games and say, what'd you think of that announcer? And they either go, yeah, I like that guy or yeah, it seems like an asshole. I mean, those are their answers. That means I need to get close with your uncles. All right. Last one for you. You mentioned your dad a couple of times. He died 20 years ago last summer. When do you find yourself thinking about your dad? At least, at least once a day. And that's not an overstatement because I dream about him. I'd say four or five times a week, maybe every night.

And you're talking to the guy who basically emceived his dad's funeral. They had a public viewing of the casket at Bush Stadium, which was accompanied by guest speakers. And, of course, who do they get to emcee that me? So I'm basically, and now to talk about my deceased dad who died. six minutes ago is Bob Costis. And then he came up and said, now to talk about my dad, here's Mike Shannon. And then he came up and talked. It was just a really weird. And I tell you that because I don't know that I ever emotionally, he was sick for seven months and I was in the hospital

with him every night that I was in town and every day, you know, at least once a day. I went to go see him. And I slowly mourned his loss. And then when he finally died, the only time I cried about it. It was my grandma, my mom's mom was in a, which her health was failing. And I went to her and I cried to her about my dad. That was the only time to this day that I've ever cried publicly or even privately about my dad dying, which is weird because we were so close. But I dream about, he's in my dream last night. And I don't know. That's his way of like, I don't know. It's, it's deep. in me, but I've never really gotten there. I think I need to spend some time in the offseason

with Aaron Rogers, I think is what I'm saying. I need to go a long walk in a desert and talk to Jim Morrison and the lizard king and then come back and I'll be a much more interesting person. A few quasi-legal substances might be involved. Yeah, is it illegal? I don't even, no. I don't know how to spell it. I sure is hell I'm too scared to take it. And I don't even know if it's legal. And the dreams about your dad are like memories, things from the past? No, we're like calling a game together or he's calling a game and he's doing the first half and I'm doing the second half or vice versa and we talk about it and we I don't know. It's not, I'm sure a lot of people who've lost a parent, you dream about that parent who's gone and it's like all this time

they've been hiding somewhere and now you've just found them. now they're they're back in your life or whatever. And then you wake up and you go on about your day. But yeah, that's that that's their. I don't want to overstated, but I would say safely five times a week. All right. Monday night, Tampa versus Dallas, neither Joe nor Troy will be complaining. No.

About the matchup they will have been assigned to. Joe Buck, thanks for coming on the press. Thanks, Brian. Now it's time for the third, third. Yes, third weekly edition of David Shoemaker guesses the strain pun headline. I feel very will be gone. Beliegered.

Wednesday's headline, indeed. About the potential fall of a beloved American box store was bed bath and beliegered or woe be gone. Today's headline comes from valued listener Jason Wilson. It's from the Toronto star, David. I'm going to read you the subhead,

but it's about something very near and dear to your heart. It's about one of your first. favorite subjects, David, the medieval reenactor festival. Oh, yes, one of my favorite subject. Here is the subhead. A vibrant local community of medieval reenactors is devoted to exploring life in the 14th century and proving that chivalry isn't dead. I'm going to spot you that this is about a popular medieval sport, or what I think was a medieval sport. What was the Toronto Star's Strain pun headline?

This has been a journey because the way that when you said medieval reenactment festival, I said this definitely, well, first of all, I thought you were going to talk about medieval times and not a festival. And then when you said reenactment festival, I was like, well, definitely Rhinfair is part of this because you avoided saying RINFair. And now you're going to sport, but now you're saying you're spotting me what, joust? Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. Jouse. Yeah.

Jouse desserts? Jous. Joust Just God. It's not just a medieval fair This year, David. It goes on and on and on

every year into infinity. So what kind of joust is it? Oh, infinite joust. Yeah. Infinite joust. That's so great. Yeah. He is David Shoemaker.

I'm Brian Curtis. Production Magic, Eric is Cervantes back Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media. See you then, David. See you later, Brian.