Joe Buck: The only thing I’ve ever rooted for is more games

Look, Joe Buck probably hates your favorite team. He might not love Awful Announcing either. Not after the number of times we’ve written about him. But when one of the most recognizable voices in sports media mentions us, our ears perk up.

So thank you, Joe, for the shoutout. We’ll take it from here.

Buck’s latest media mini-tour took him to Lake Tahoe for the American Century Championship, where he popped up on The Dan Patrick Show (which, yes, led to multiple AA articles), and then again on Meadowlark Media’s STUpodity with Jon “Stugotz” Weiner.

During the latter, it was suggested to Buck that he should just start leaning into the idea of picking teams to root for, since, you know, most sports fans already assume he’s rooting against theirs.

His answer? Basically: where would he even begin?

“St. Louis, I don’t do hockey. And I don’t do baseball,” Buck explained. “So, they don’t have football. I can’t do that. But, yeah, when you do the local games, you say, ‘We.’ When you do the national stuff, ‘We’ means you and Troy [Aikman] or me and [John] Smoltz,” Buck said. “That’s the only ‘We.’ But, whatever, we’re wasting a lot of time on nothing right now.”

Which, in fairness, is Stugotz’s entire brand.

But what isn’t nothing is Buck’s genuine affection for the St. Louis Blues. He’s a season ticket holder. When they won the Stanley Cup in 2019, Buck wanted his guys — the team’s longtime local broadcast duo of John Kelly and Darren Pang — calling the big moments. Not because he didn’t respect national voices like Kenny Albert or Doc Emrick (he does), but because Kelly and Pang had been there all year. It meant something.

Kelly, of course, recently lost his job in a cost-cutting move. And the whole thing reminded Buck of something that resonates with a lot of fans who once labeled him public enemy No. 1. Sometimes, the homerism just hits right.

“It hits your ear right,” Buck said. “It makes you comforted. And it makes you comforted to think that the people on-air are actually rooting along with you, as opposed to the people on-air actually don’t care who wins. I think I’ve only been guilty — and we can get Awful Announcing to pick this part off right now — I think I’ve only been guilty of rooting for more games. That’s the only thing I’ve ever rooted for.”

Challenge accepted.

“Because I remember my first World Series at Yankee Stadium walking out after Game 2,” he continued. “The Braves won the first two games on the road at Yankee Stadium. And Ed Goren, our boss at Fox, is chain-smoking, and I walk into the truck compound, and he’s like, ‘We’re dead. It’s going to be a four-game sweep. We’re dead. We need more games. We need more than four games.’ Like, I’ll do my best, Ed. I’ll lie. I’ll get the score wrong.

“But that kind of creeps in your mind that the network is going to take it on the chin, if they don’t at least get six games. And so when you’re faced with a four-game sweep, it’s so much build-up to such a dud. And that would be the only thing that, you know, I think ever creeps into your mind.”

So no, Joe Buck wasn’t rooting against your favorite team. He was rooting for a Game 6.

And maybe — just maybe — a day when we stop writing about him.