How Peyton Manning, Joe Buck Teamed Up for a New Swing at Golf for ESPN
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThis wasn’t supposed to be Joe Buck’s first assignment for ESPN.The veteran sports announcer raised eyebrows earlier this year by jumping from his longtime roost at Fox Sports to the Disney sports giant, where he and colleague Troy Aikman are set to host “Monday Night Football.” On Thursday afternoon, however, Buck was doing something completely different.
Here he was, sitting alongside golf analyst Michael Collins on ESPN2, watching Tiger Woods on the green at the 2022 PGA Championship and talking to baseball great Ken Griffey Jr.
about his golf and baseball swings.Even though the setting is relaxed and informal, it poses a challenge for Buck. “I have to remind myself the whole time it’s not what I typically do,” he says in an interview. “I have to kind of turn off the gene that I have that wants to be on top of all the action.
It’s hard.” He will do more of it Friday, Saturday and Sunday on ESPN2 in a new format that adds sports-pub chatter and celebrity appearances to the typical golf coverage.
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