Joe Buck Quotes

Five years ago, I wasn't getting questions [about blogs and the internet] from the TV/radio critic of the New York Times.

You have to trust yourself.

If you're the play-by-play announcer, I think it's your job to be better than just saying what's on people's TV screen.

You can make an editorial comment about the play while it's going on. You don't have to be bogged down by the details because the camera is showing the groundball to short.

You have to make that stand out from the rest of the three hours. There are times when I'm having fun and being loose, and there are times when I'm ultra serious - calling the Giants/Patriots in the Super Bowl is a lot different than calling the Giants/Cubs game last Saturday. There are different levels of intensity, and I try to respect that when I'm doing it.

It's a different world for those of us who are doing this for a living. Certainly a lot different than my dad had to deal with when he was calling games on a national level for CBS. It's just a different world. I'm not saying it's better or worse, there's just a lot more access.

The worst thing in the world is to feel like people turn on the TV and say, oh god, it's that guy again. I'm trying to avoid that.

I think he [Tony LaRussa] legitimately believes what he says. I don't agree with him. But I think he's being as honest as he can be.

I'm a proponent of a playoff so everybody can calm down.

I'm probably always guilty for rooting for a long series. Not either side - I don't really care who wins the game, but it makes for more compelling TV the more games you go deeper into a series.

I've met Jon Glaser who has a show on Adult Swim call Delocated and he's the main writer we hired for the show. That's really my brand of humor, I would say.

Whether it's a steroid conversation, or a player who gets into trouble, whatever it may be. Because of that, it makes you wonder what you can do if you had a little more space. That's the fun of the show for me - I have an hour worth of space.

I think when you do radio there's a certain amount of freedom that when you walk in and sit down and turn the mic on, it's you. It's all you.

We all fell in love with the young Macaulay Culkin, back in the day

I actually called a touchdown on national TV in the NFL while going to the bathroom.

I started in radio. I enjoy the mental gymnastics that go along with matching voice to picture and vice versa and trying to accent the action as opposed to provide all of the action through my words. And that's really what play-by-play is.

And Johnny Manziel is only in a snickers commercial.

Part of me was always trying to prove that I belonged and prove that I deserved the job and prove that I could handle it. And that takes the fun out of it.

You have to be true to the game you're covering, whether its being lite at times - I certainly try to be that way - but it is limiting because you're fitting it in around what's going on in the game.

I certainly don't feel like I have a monopoly on [opinions] because I have the job at FOX - any one of a thousand people could have the job. There are people out there that have just as educated an opinion on what I'm calling or describing as I do.

The camera is really the play-by-play person.

I think I enjoy my job more now than I did when I started. When I started in 1996 on a national level, I was 27 and part of me was scared to death.

No fat batboy is invisible.

When I'm doing TV, it's more of a choreographed dance, in a way. So I've got to follow the pictures, or the pictures have to follow me.

Robert Kraft, a modern day Zoolander.

But I tell people all the time that if you can do the job, then there's a spot for you. I refuse to believe that there isn't any room in this business. People leave jobs and jobs open up every year. If you can do the job, you'll find your way into the broadcast booth.

Even talking about serious issues - it's hard to fit in anything around calling a baseball game.

You have to do well on third downs.

If you're prepared, you can be relaxed.

We're not all robots. There are emotions that creep in.

Judd Apatow, Conan O'Brien ... taking what you think is funny, and then adding another layer to it. That's kind of my sensibility. Those are the guys that make me laugh.

When I visited KU, I thought, 'I wish I'd gone to Kansas.' They would take me around to their spots, and my spots at Indiana just felt like old hangouts. It was one of those times where you always wished you were somewhere else. But I was happy I ended up at Indiana coming from small little St. Louis.

I have more fun now doing a game on a Saturday or Sunday than I've ever had. I love the fact that every year, it's gotten more and more fun.

There's a little bit more of a freedom when you're doing radio play-by-play as opposed to television. I prefer the television side of it.

You know what you gotta do cowboy?

One of my best friends is Paul Rudd, and he's been in just about every one of Judd Apatow's movies.

I think Jeff [Van Gundy] is really, really good and fun to listen to. And I would be disappointed if - I know he offered to not be a part of the broadcast - he wasn't on the air. We'd all miss something. I think the [brother situation] adds the human element.

[If you could have 10 minutes in a room with Barry Bonds] ... I'd ask him for another half hour. And then I'd probably start with the obvious and see how honest he would get. I just think those guys are so protected, that you're not going to get much out of them.

I was always a 'grass is greener' kind of guy.

I got hired by the Cards when I was 21, and I could handle the job, but for the most part, I got hired because I was somebody's kid. When you start that way, you have a lot to prove.

It's kind of my intention to be myself on the show. My main priority on FOX is to do play-by-play. Nobody's tuning in to listen to me. If I didn't show up to do the games, people would watch, and the ratings probably wouldn't be all that different. That's not why people are watching.

I'm the luckiest guy in the world to be my parents' son.

I think by its very nature, it's redundant, you know, being the play-by-play guy on television.

I think sometimes, you have to pick your spots about when a game gets intense or when the game's outcome is pivoting in that moment.

Every time you see kid and hear kid, you think, man, I have to not sound like a kid.

Anytime you go digging around on the internet and into your world, maybe you don't want to find out where your name pops up.

I think most people associate me with my dad.

You need to have a great, strong bladder to call professional sports because, especially in football where, you know, you don't know how long a half's going to last and then the timeouts happen and a incomplete pass.