ESPN went through a series of layoffs in the summer, letting go of some big-name personalities like Jeff Van Gundy and Suzy Kolber. The network got grief from many people in the industry, including now from one of their own most important announcers.
While appearing on The Michael Kay Show Monday, Joe Buck addressed the fact that he and Troy Aikman will work a record-breaking 22nd season together. In that conversation, Buck appeared to take a jab at his own company for their layoffs.
“I think we only break the record if we finish the year,” Buck said. “It’s ESPN, we could be fired tomorrow.”
"It's ESPN, we could be fired tomorrow," Joe Buck pic.twitter.com/mPuSpntet9
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 11, 2023
Buck is only in his second year working on ESPN’s Monday Night Football and is probably one of the most valuable personalities at the company. It is highly unlikely ESPN would ever look to fire Buck, which is why he can make this joke in the first place.
Other current ESPN employees like Mike Breen, Stephen A. Smith and Paul Finebaum have already publicly discussed the difficulty of losing valued colleagues. Now, Buck can be added to the list of those who appear disappointed by the network’s decisions.
