At a time when ESPN’s Troy Aikman has made plenty of waves in the NFL pool for his South Beach side gig, Aikman’s partner has generated a bit of slow-time news.
Buck recently told Richard Deitsch of Sports Business Journal that he hopes to finish his long broadcasting career with his current employer.
“If you reached through my computer screen right now and handed me a contract to continue my time at ESPN, I would sign it without even looking at it,” Buck told Deitsch. “I’ve loved every second of it and I am hopeful that I’m at ESPN for the rest of my career. That’s as plain as I can say it and as honest as I can say it and maybe it’s stupid of me to say. If something gets thrown at me and I have to shift, I’ll shift. But I would be hopeful to stay right where I am until I’m finished.”
He knows that, at some level, professing love for a broadcasting job will prompt the broadcaster’s bean counters to try to lowball him at the bargaining table. And he added that his agent has had no formal talks on a five-year deal that was signed in 2022.
So the math is the math. And the market is the market.
There’s only a small handful of top jobs in the NFL universe. The planets could align, however, for Buck to potentially replace Al Michaels at Amazon, if Michaels retires after the 2026 season.
Buck, 56, started calling NFL games with Fox at the age of 25. He worked there from 1994 through 2021. His fifth season with ESPN will be capped by a Super Bowl. And there’s no reason to think that won’t continue indefinitely.
Still, talks will happen at some point. Buck’s comments seem to be a public invitation to get things taken care of ASAFP.
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