With sports on an indefinite hiatus, top broadcasters like Joe Buck have found themselves with more time on their hands than usual. Sensing an opportunity or more likely, a chance at some free publicity, the website I’m Live offered the play-by-play man a million dollars for six weeks of doing live commentary on cam shows. He turned the offer down, but he did so in hilarious fashion.
The hilarious fashion, in this case, was a snarky twitter reply. Divisive Twitter personality and former ESPN employee Darren Rovell tweeted out the offer, and Buck fired back with an all-time tweet joking that he’d probably just be getting own money returned to him. Check out this wit…
Dorothy Parker would be proud of that one. No doubt some fans, who only know Joe Buck as the PG voice of so many sporting events, were likely shocked by his willingness to get down in the mud. The real Joe Buck, however, is a much more complicated and interesting guy. His wonderful interviews on the popular podcast Pardon My Take have always been colorful, and his ill-fated HBO show was anything but PC. He’s a man who is willing to speak his mind, but he only does so in a context that makes sense. If he’s broadcasting to families on Sunday morning, he’s not going to go out of his way to be edgy.
To have a little fun and keep their voices active, many broadcasters have been doing play-by-play on random videos. Buck even made a one reacting to his own Super Bowl commentary, which is hilarious. No doubt this willingness to get weird and creative is what led I’m Live to think of the idea. I like the hustle; so, I’m gonna link out (NSFW) and even browse around a minute just to make sure I’m properly doing my job here.
As for when sports will return, there’s nothing but educated guesses at this point. It seems likely when leagues do resume, they’ll do so without fans. Given how starved people are for entertainment and especially sports, however, I don’t think the ratings will be affected. In fact, I think it’s very likely, if the NFL returns in the Fall, it’ll do with the highest regular season ratings in years. I think some of the early games may even put up near playoff numbers.
Not to be outdone, Joe Buck’s wife hilariously chimed in after her husband’s initial refusal. She called his decision an “epic fail” in a follow-up tweet and said his porn career had “potential.” They sound like an amazing couple. Here’s to hoping at some point in the future he reconsiders and we get some hilarious porn play-by-play action.
