Joe Buck and Troy Aikman will be calling their sixth Super Bowl for FOX on Sunday.
But it doesn’t mean they’re not affected by the pressure of calling an NFL game that will be seen by a gargantuan audience of fans, both casual and die-hard, those who have rooting interests or don’t.
“The stakes just feel higher every year,” Buck told For The Win in a recent phone interview. “I think the familiarity gets erased by feeling like the general population is more educated on the NFL than it was when we started.”
Aikman — who won three rings as a player, quarterbacking the Dallas Cowboys — concurred that the enormity of it can be daunting.
“It’s easy to say it’s another game and plays the same way,” he said, “but then once you get out there, leading up to it, you realize it’s a big game. The electricity in the air, the urgency, the pageantry of it all, you’re reminded at every turn that it’s a big event.”
So how do they stay calm in the face of all that pressure? Besides their chemistry and what Buck described as “muscle memory” from a year on the air, they have little things they rely on.
There are always a variety of flavored nuts for refueling purposes, although Buck avoids them during the broadcast in case a piece gets caught in the back of his throat. Aikman reminds himself to balance the information he’s providing between hardcore fans of the AFC and NFC champions and those who have no idea about the teams playing.
Buck has other strategies. He writes up a board for each team with notes and stats on each player — he posted his NFC championship board in a recent tweet (see below). Then, he’ll either write a message that will make him laugh — “it’s just an (expletive) game” — if he sees it, or put a photo of his family there to keep him grounded.
“It’s best if I remind myself we’re not reversing the flow of the Nile when we’re sitting in the booth,” he said.
I have an NFC Champ game mess on my hands. pic.twitter.com/4UnkoUY7fA
— Joe Buck (@Buck) January 19, 2020
Believe it or not, Buck will actually go on his phone occasionally during the broadcast.
“I do that all the time,” he said “World Series, Super Bowl, championship game, random game in September. I think it kind of pops the balloon around me a little bit and connects me to my real world with my friends and family. There are stretches where, if I feel we’re in an intense moment in the game, I’ll turn it over.”
“Sometimes it’s helpful because I’ll get an outsider’s perspective on what we’re watching,” he added. “It’s both a diversion and applicable to the game that I might even use.”
But it all comes back to chemistry for Aikman and Buck, who hang out when they’re not in the broadcast booth.
“There’s a comfort level with he and I, not only professionally, but we’re really good friends,” Aikman said. “That helps.”
Buck agreed.
“Our level of familiarity and comfort grows every year.” Buck said. “We get that feel for what the other person’s rhythm is, either for the course of the year or just that day. I know when he’s stressed out, I’m sure he knows when I am. I know when he needs a laugh, I’m sure he knows when I need a laugh. It’s a really comforting feeling going into a game knowing the person I’m working with so well that it eliminates a lot of the unknowns.”
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