If social media is to be believed, there is another petition going around demanding that FOX Sports no longer assign Joe Buck and Troy Aikman to broadcast Green Bay Packers games. The belief is that both “hate the Packers”, criticize the team unfairly and don’t get as excited about their big plays as they do for the other team’s big plays.
It’s entirely possible that Buck and Aikman do hate Green Bay. They may have grown tired of Aaron Rodgers’s smarmy demeanor or Mike McCarthy’s doublespeak. Aikman is a former Cowboy who beat the Packers like a drum during his playing days. Buck is a St Louis guy, so maybe he grew tired of watching the Lombardi Packers kill the Cardinals every year.
If there is any reason for announcers to “hate” Green Bay, it’s likely having to do a game at Lambeau Field in winter. How much would you enjoy having to work in an open-air booth when it’s below freezing and your the only two in the stadium that can’t drink to make it feel warmer? You know who actually does dislike Green Bay? Al Michaels. And that is because Al can’t get a decent steak in town–and that is all that Al eats for dinner is steak.
There is a very easy solution to getting Joe Buck and Troy Aikman–not to mention Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth off Packers’ broadcasts: have the team stink. Don’t make the playoffs. Don’t play games that decide division titles. Don’t have star players that “America wants to see”. You think FOX, CBS and NBC assign their top broadcasting teams to the LA Rams at Cleveland?
When I was a kid, the Packers always had the “C team” announcers. It will always be the smallest TV market in the league and a 3-4-1 Green Bay versus 4-4 St Louis Cardinals would get guys like Tim Ryan and Johnny Morris or Tom Brookshire and Jim Hill. You’d sit through that dreck waiting for Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen to do the actually entertaining AFC game on NBC (usually involving the San Diego Chargers or the Oakland Raiders).
Being an also-ran will also make it easier to keep track of when the Packers play. No more games being flexed to Sunday nights. No more Monday night games. Just one Thursday nighter that the NFL requires include every team at least once. All noon Sunday kickoffs from now on–with Spero Dedes and Soloman Wilcotts on the call. Unless FOX wanted to punish Green Bay fans for their insolence and they assigned Gus Johnson to scream at the top of his lungs for every play every week. One quarter of that clown and you will be begging for Buck and Aikman to come back.
