Joe Buck says he and Troy Aikman enjoyed cocktails in TV booth during NFL games
If you’re watching a sporting event and feel that, perhaps, the commentators might be playing it fast and loose with their phrasing from the booth, we might have an explanation for you — at least when it comes to one high-profile partnership.
While on Colin Cowherd’s podcast, Joe Buck shared that he and former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman would sometimes sip on cocktails while calling NFL games for Fox Sports. Oh, and he also would sip his way to relaxation while in the booth for postseason baseball.
And yes, it was in moderation, he says.
“I’ll say this. We have had that glass of bourbon in the booth,” Buck said on the podcast. “Although it’s not bourbon, it’s tequila, splash of Grand Marnier and grapefruit juice. I went through a couple years where in the first inning of every postseason baseball game I had the runner go get the biggest beer the stadium sold. And I had it sitting there and I would sip it from time-to-time to remind myself to relax and have fun. I’m just doing a game.”
Most who work in the sports field — especially when calling professional games — will say that the job can be nerve wracking. And while Buck has been in the business for four decades, sometimes he just needed to let his hair down a little, he says. And it sounds like Aikman felt the same way.
“I brought that over to football, but because Troy is a man of finer tastes, beer somehow became tequila, Grand Marnier and grapefruit juice,” Buck said. “We haven’t done it in a long time now, but it was good for a stretch and I feel like it’s a good mental trigger to just chill and remind yourself that you’re not refueling a F-16 in mid-flight. You’re doing a sporting event and if you treat it like anything other than that you’re doing yourself a disservice.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 10:18 AM with the headline "Joe Buck says he and Troy Aikman enjoyed cocktails in TV booth during NFL games."