Joe Buck on studying the greats and criticism that ‘kills’ him

FOX Sports’ lead play-by-play announcer, Joe Buck has called six Super Bowls, 23 World Series and 25 MLB League Championship Series for the network and takes time for a Q&A with The Post’s Steve Serby. On Sunday, Buck calls the NFC championship between Tom Brady’s Buccaneers and Aaron Rodgers’ Packers at 3 p.m. on Fox. 

Q: What is Aaron Rodgers like in a production meeting? 

A: He is very open. Brett Favre, you had to kick him out of the production meeting, because he just kept going. Aaron’s the same way. Aaron’s on the list that treat it as therapy. He will tell you genuinely who in his opinion’s playing well, who can’t play, who stinks and how the guys around him are playing at that moment in time. He’s funny, he kind of challenges you when you ask him questions, he doesn’t just spit out the boring athlete-speak. He is thoughtful about his answers, and I think he’s got a lot of respect for Troy [Aikman] and knows that we’re smart enough to know what he’s saying is not all usable in the broadcast, but it’s good background for our information. 

Q: Tom Brady in a production meeting? 

A: He’s become that way too. He’s smart because he’ll say, “Hey, don’t use this in the broadcast, but,” and then he’ll give you the information, and you can turn it into your own observation or your own background and then make a comment off that. These are two quarterbacks that really kind of open the playbook for us and tell us what to expect or what they’re thinking going in. And he’s very funny too. He’s not a guarded person talking to our group. 

Q: Brady chasing his seventh Super Bowl championship at age 43? 

A: I just think it’s one of the great stories in sports that we’ve seen in a long time. To put up the numbers he put up with no preseason, with a truncated training camp, with no offseason program, to build this over the course of the year and to be peaking at the right time … the defensive players who are young are really learning a lot from Tom Brady, so he does a lot behind the scenes that we don’t see. It’s incredible how he’s taken care of himself and how he’s jelled with playmakers that you could argue he’s never had in the previous 20 years of his career. 

Tom Brady Buccaneers
Tom Brady will get one step closer to a seventh Super Bowl win if he can beat the Packers Sunday.
Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Q: Do you think Bill Belichick will be watching the game? 

A: Oh, he’ll be watching. I think Belichick watches everything. I think he’s aware of everything that’s said. I think Tom has been very careful with how he’s talked about that stuff this year; I think Tom’s been very respectful that way. But yeah, there’s no doubt he’ll be watching. 

Q: Will he be rooting for Tom? 

A: I’m gonna say no. I don’t know that somebody that’s been in sports that long roots necessarily, but I’ll just say that I was not surprised that they had this divorce this past offseason. I was surprised at the team he went to. I think that there is a lot of competition between those two. I think both wanted to prove this year that it was not the other guy, it was them, and here’s Brady still standing and Belichick had a sub-.500 year, and I’m sure that’s not lost on Bill. I think I would be naive to think that Bill Belichick would be rooting for Tampa Bay. 

Q: Who are the announcers you study? 

A: Al Michaels, I just think to this day, his attention to detail, his ability now at this stage of his career to just kind of freewheel and nonchalantly bring in stories and nods to the past, I still study Al Michaels. I still study Jim Nantz, I still study Mike Tirico. As a kid, I was only exposed to my dad on radio, and then [Vin] Scully and [Joe] Garagiola when they would come through and do the Game of the Week. Scully, he’s almost impossible to emulate because, if you watched him only doing the Dodgers, he was a one-man band. To sit there by yourself in games that could sometimes last three, four hours and just go, weaving stories in and out of play-by-play, those are the guys that I admire, that can deftly give you some background, some history, while not going down a rabbit hole and staying present and in the game. And I think Al’s great at that, and obviously, Vin is the all-time master at that. 

Q: What criticism has bothered you the most? 

A: Specifically, that I don’t like the Yankees, which kills me because I’ve known Joe Torre since I was 2, and obviously it’s good for our network when New York’s in anything, but … just the whole idea that you’re always rooting against every team because I’m not there representing either one of the two teams that are playing that day, so you got to get excited for both, and both fan bases think you’re rooting against them when you’re loud for the other team which they don’t hear all year from their hometown announcers. That drives me crazy. I don’t care who wins, I just want to see a great game or a long series in the case of baseball. 

Q: How did you get over the period in your life when you battled depression and anxiety? 

A: Seeing a therapist regularly … kind of getting my feelings out … taking medication, getting on antidepressants. I feel like I live in a state of anxiety trying to be as good as I can be on TV, trying to be the best husband I can be, trying to be the best dad I can be. No different than anybody else in their own life with whatever pressures they have. And then I think following my dad into this business, who was my best friend in the world, but also set out an example that at times was really hard to live up to, especially locally in St. Louis. … Growing up a fat kid and being made fun of on the playground, old scars that don’t really go away and trying to find my way through it. Everybody’s got their own stuff they deal with. I try not to hide any of that, and if me talking about it helps anybody else find someone to talk to or whatever, just kind of unload, then I think it’s good. 

Q: What does it mean to you to be in the Hall of Fame? 

A: It was shocking when they gave me the heads-up [last September] that that was happening. I think the best part of it is that my mom was watching. … My mom is my biggest fan, sometimes my harshest critic in the best possible way, really constructive criticism. But for her to see her son join her late husband in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on the media side with the Pete Rozelle Award, who they were both friends with [during] his time as [NFL] Commissioner, I think that’s what made it special. She was watching it happen live, and she can be there on that day and know that her son is joining my dad, her late husband, in there with that great award.

source: nypost.com