Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, and Lisa Salters will be on the call for the Saints’ Week 16 matchup against the Green Bay Packers:
The New Orleans Saints are back in a primetime slot for the first time in a little while, and this time they will take on the Green Bay Packers in Week 16 at Lambeau Field. With this, they are on Monday Night Football, which will be covered by the ESPN crew of Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, and Lisa Salters.
Buck and Aikman are a pairing that fans may recognize as one of the more unfavorable announcing crews of the options available, as Buck has been perceived to have a general lack of emotion in his commentary at some points, and Aikman has a few different criticisms from different points of view. Ultimately in recent games, they have been better, however, and it seems the quality of their broadcasts has improved lately which is a great sign.
In a game that could be slow-moving to start off due to strong defenses and weather conditions, this could be a perfect point of emphasis for the crew of Buck, Aikman, and Salters to use to their advantage, as they can analyze the play and schemes of each team as they work through the opening parts of the matchup. Aikman’s analysis from the point of view of a former player always provides some level of quality content, and Buck has strong analysis as well at many points. Pairing them up with Salters is a good choice, as she has immense experience as well and knowledge of the game.
Dan Quinn went from an underwhelming hire to a Coach of the Year contender.
ESPN’s Joe Buck showed a lack of respect for Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn during Monday night’s game between the Broncos and Browns.
Late in the game, Buck, sounding like he was the agent for Denver head coach Sean Payton, laid out the veteran coach’s case for being the NFL Coach of the Year. According to Buck, Payton had the Broncos in contention with a rookie quarterback — and he was the only coach doing so. Troy Aikman played along until a producer clearly reminded Buck about Quinn, Jayden Daniels, and the Commanders.
Buck then mentioned Quinn, only to repeat what he said earlier. It was strange.
Both the Broncos and Commanders are 8-5. Washington was the story of the first half of the season, with Daniels playing at an MVP level and the Commanders sitting at 7-2. While a three-game losing streak cooled Washington a bit, a 42-19 win over Tennessee got them back on the right track.
Let’s go back to Buck for a second. The coaches he named are all doing an outstanding job. Dan Campbell (Lions), Jim Harbaugh (Chargers), Payton, Mike Tomlin (Steelers), and Kevin O’Connell (Vikings) all have a case, but has any coach turned around his team more than Quinn in less than 12 months?
Washington was a dumpster fire before owner Josh Harris fired Ron Rivera. The roster was in terrible shape; there was no quarterback and an overmatched coaching staff. Harris got to work in January, hiring Adam Peters as GM and Quinn as head coach. Quinn put together an All-Star staff, while Peters flipped the roster. The ultimate piece came in April when the Commanders chose Daniels at No. 2 overall in the NFL draft.
Washington won four games last season. The Commanders have won eight already this year — with four games remaining. Payton, who was Denver’s coach last season, won eight games in 2023.
No coach had a bigger job in front of them than Quinn. And remember the outrage from some of Washington’s fan base about Quinn’s hiring? They wanted Ben Johnson. Adam Peters wanted Quinn. Media from around the country called the hire underwhelming, including CBS recently.
There’s a long way to go, but Quinn and Washington got the last laugh. Quinn proved to be exactly what the Commanders needed. He is a true culture changer, not a coach like Rivera, who talked about culture but was too busy reading what was said about him. Quinn has accomplished in 13 weeks what Rivera couldn’t do in four years. And no thanks to Rivera, as all four of his first-round picks are gone from Washington’s roster.
Campbell is having a terrific season, but the Lions were expected to be a Super Bowl contender. Harbaugh, as usual, is phenomenal but inherited a franchise quarterback. O’Connell is truly Quinn’s primary competition for the Coach of the Year award. What he’s doing in Minnesota with a journeyman quarterback is impressive.
Still, Quinn is not only winning but has also cleansed the organization. Players love coming to work—every player on the roster bought into Quinn’s messaging. Imagine if the Commanders get to 12 wins. Heck, even 11 wins. That would mean they tripled, or almost tripled their win total from one year.
Case closed.
So, while Quinn may have been an “underwhelming” hire, and Joe Buck prefers Sean Payton, Quinn’s case is as strong as anyone’s to be the 2024 NFL Coach of the Year.
Joe Buck and Josh Harris get their handshake right the second time around.
When Josh Harris was making the rounds as the new managing partner for the Washington Commanders last summer, he stopped by the ESPN broadcast booth for the preseason game between his Commanders and the Baltimore Ravens.
Harris, nor anyone else knew he’d create a viral moment with legendary play-by-play commentator Joe Buck.
As Buck spoke and his hands moved, Harris looked down and thought that Buck was going for a handshake. It was innocent yet awkward. As this happened, Buck’s longtime broadcast partner, Troy Aikman, noticed the exchange and chuckled.
Here is the viral handshake if you missed it initially.
Harris looked like he knew mid-handshake that it wasn’t supposed to be a handshake.
Fast forward to Monday night. The Commanders were in Cincinnati for a Monday Night Football game against the Bengals. As is customary for Monday Night Football, Buck and Aikman were on the call.
Before the game, Harris and Buck caught up and got the handshake down right this time.
Jason Kelce will join Joe Buck and Troy Aikman in the booth for the third quarter of the Monday night matchup between Eagles and Falcons
Monday night will be a celebration of Eagles football. The team will honor the retiring Nick Foles at halftime of Philadelphia’s Week 2 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons.
The game will air on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN+ and feature another recently retired Eagles legend in multiple capacities. Jason Kelce will join Ryan Clark, Marcus Spears, and Scott Van Pelt on Monday Night Countdown and then Troy Aikman and Joe Buck in the booth for the entire third quarter of Monday’s game.
Foles will be best remembered for completing 28-of-43 passes for 373 passing yards, three touchdowns, one interception, and a 106.1 passer rating en route to Super Bowl LII MVP honors. He became the first backup quarterback to win the Super Bowl since Tom Brady in 2001 with New England.
The Eagles defeated the Patriots 41-33 in Super Bowl LII, winning the storied franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy.
Buck revealed that they were in Mexico in July and decided to play golf.
Thanks to an Adam Schefter injury report on fellow ESPN reporter Michelle Beisner-Buck, her husband Joe Buck decided to take to X (formerly Twitter) to break down how he accidentally broke his wife’s ankle with a golf shot.
Joe revealed that he and Beisner-Buck were in Mexico back in July and decided to play golf. She ended up doing a headstand near the tee box on the course for good luck, and when he teed off, she did a split.
You can guess what happened next. He hit a drive into her ankle and “shattered it,” per Joe. There was “severe” nerve damage, too.
She got surgery, but didn’t blame him. Watch them retell the tale:
Here’s the truth @AdamSchefter the whole truth and nothing but the guilt-ridden brutal truth! My wife is one amazing, tough woman. And she has not for one second pinned this on me. Or added to my mental load. While I have. Fluke stuff. Probably lucky it wasn’t worse! pic.twitter.com/1SCEhJv3t7
Joe Buck admits that he would redo the infamous “Disgusting Act” call from Minnesota’s 2005 wild card game against the Packers
On the most recent episode of “This is Football,” host Kevin Clark asked former Fox Sports and current Monday Night Football announcer Joe Buck which call in his career would he like to have back.
Buck didn’t hesitate. “The Randy Moss call, for sure…”
The incident Buck is referring to is the mooning touchdown celebration from Moss on January 9, 2005, during a wild card game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Green Bay Packers.
After a 284-yard and three-touchdown day from Daunte Culpepper was capped off with a 34-yard Moss touchdown at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the then-seventh-year receiver decided that this wound deserved a little more salt.
Moss centered himself next to the goalpost and decided, in front of all the fans at Lambeau Field, to mimic pulling his pants down and mooning the crowd as the Vikings coasted to a 31-17 victory.
Moss would be fined $10,000 for the fine, but the real blowback came in the moment, as Buck let it be known how distasteful of an act that was for the Green Bay faithful.
“That is a disgusting act by Randy Moss! And it’s unfortunate that we had that on our air live! That is disgusting by Randy Moss!”
Fast forward almost 20 years later and Buck admits that he couldn’t understand where that call even came from.
“The more time goes on, the more I think, man, I can’t believe that came out of my mouth…that was too far, and it was not calculated, you never know what you’re going to see when you go into a stadium…”
Now, as time has passed and the situation behind the incident has become clearer, Buck understands that Moss had no ill will towards the fans of Green Bay.
“The irony of it is we were at Fox together for a brief while, we’re at ESPN together, my wife, Michelle, does the pre-game show…of all the people on that pre-game show, the nicest human being to my wife was Randy…knowing more of the backstory after the fact, about the fans and whatever and what they did to the team bus…that was one that I would probably pull back a little bit on.”
Buck is referring to the Green Bay tradition of their fans mooning the team bus as they leave the stadium. His apology seemed to be sincere and everyone makes mistakes, especially during moments filled with as much emotion as a wild-card game between two hated rivals like the Packers and Vikings.
However, without Buck’s call, without the added vitriol that his statement added, we may not have the $10,000 fine that followed. With that, we would be without another legendary Randy-ism.
When Moss was asked about writing the check for the fine, Moss iterated that players like Moss don’t write checks for a measly $10K.
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman weren’t not complimentary of the Eagles on Monday night.
The Philadelphia Eagles are officially out of the playoffs, and ESPN Monday Night Football announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman didn’t hide their criticisms of the Birds in the NFC wild-card round.
As the Eagles fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the first round of the NFL playoffs, Buck couldn’t help but notice during the first half how many missed tackles were stacking up for the Eagles’ defense, once one of the NFL’s best.
After watching Philly’s defense dominate in 2022, the unit didn’t look quite the same after the departure of former defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. A lot of the same pieces were still in place, in fact.
"And so far the tackling for the Eagles in their secondary has been awful."
Aikman went even further to say he thought Philly’s body language made the team look like it didn’t really care about the football game. Ouch.
Troy Aikman just said looking at the Eagles' "body language" makes him think they're "not really into this ballgame." This is a playoff game. And that's about as searing an indictment as you could levy on a team.
Aikman continued his harsh critiques into the second half, which didn’t get better for Philly.
"I don't know what that is but we've seen enough of it all year long."
"It continues…on both sides of the ball, to just show the problems that Philadelphia has had and why they had the collapse that they had to end this season."
"I know there's a difference between what players and coaches say, and what they feel. They said all the right things, but you could tell they weren't feeling it… You cannot go into next season status quo." – Troy Aikman on the Eagles' finish and potential offseason changes pic.twitter.com/i1tT4MigLX
The Eagles fading down the stretch was one of the more bewildering developments of the NFL season, and Buck and Aikman’s commentary helped identify why it’s been on the downward slope for Philly.
Yep, you read that right, and if you’re here, you’re probably wondering: What’s the deal here? It’s Monday night! There’s a NFL game on — the Tennessee Titans vs. the Miami Dolphins — and the usual pairing of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman aren’t on the air.
What gives? There’s a simple answer.
Week 14 features two Monday Night Football games at the same time. So if you flip from ESPN over to ABC, you’ll see the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants play … and it’s there that you’ll find Buck and Aikman calling that game.
So Titans-Dolphins has a second team: Chris Fowler, Dan Orlovsky, Louis Riddick and Laura Rutledge.
They sounded more than happy that Bears – Vikings was finally over.
If you watched that awful Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings game on Monday night in which there were turnovers galore and barely any offense to speak of on either side of the ball, you weren’t alone.
Because imagine calling that game! Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were on the mic as they usually are for ESPN, and when the final whistle sounded after one of those multi-lateral final plays from the Vikings that failed, the announcers had an exchange that nailed it.
“… And with the Benny Hill music playing in the background, this game is over,” remarked Buck, with a heaviness you could feel through your TV.
“Thankfully,” Aikman replied.
Yup. Couldn’t agree more:
"And with the Benny Hill music playing in the background, this game is over."
"Thankfully."
— Joe Buck and Troy Aikman speaking for pretty much anyone who watched this game. pic.twitter.com/vIfmKb1SuB
