Al Michaels closed his tenure as a play-by-play voice for NBC by calling the Super Bowl this year, Joe Buck said goodbye to his 28 years on Fox by appearing on the Masked Singer.
Joe Buck’s final appearance on Fox wasn’t the dream scenario of a walk-off homerun or touchdown call. Instead, Buck serenaded the audience with Cheap Trick’s I Want You to Want Me.
Buck’s announcing voice landed him a massive deal with ESPN reportedly worth somewhere between $60-75 million. But he deserves some props for putting his singing voice on display in front of a national audience. Buck doesn’t seem to have a future singing career, but his performance wasn’t terrible.
The 52-year-old received a roar of cheers after he was revealed to the Masked Singer audience, before performing an encore performance of I Want You To Want Me.
“Honestly, 11 years ago I had a paralyzed vocal cord,” Buck said after he was revealed as the Ram on the Masked Singer. “So to come out here 11 years later and kinda throw my nerves to the wind and sing in front of this great audience, I was like, ‘why not?’”
Buck missed a portion of the 2011 Major League Baseball season for Fox after a hair plug procedure went wrong, leaving him with a paralyzed vocal cord.
Maybe more surprising than Buck’s appearance on the Masked Singer was his recent departure from Fox. The iconic play-by-play announcer spent nearly three decades with Fox as their lead voice for MLB and the NFL, but on Wednesday, ESPN announced the deal to add Buck and his longtime broadcast partner, Troy Aikman, to their Monday Night Football booth was finalized. 2022 will be Buck and Aikman’s 21st consecutive NFL season paired in the booth.
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com