Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were not mocking military flyovers in leaked clip
1. One of the dumbest sports media "controversies" rolls on with Joe Buck shedding light on what really happened in that leaked video.
If you read Traina Thoughts on Wednesday, you know that a video of Buck and Troy Aikman sarcastically talking about military flyovers before Sunday's Packers-Bucs game ended up on the internet, with the duo taking heat from people who thought they were mocking the military.
Aikman addressed the matter on Twitter on Tuesday night. Buck talked about the issue at length on the latest episode of his Daddy Issues podcast, which came out Thursday morning.
Buck explained that the remarks he and Aikman made during that leaked clip were actually said by people on their crew at a dinner the night before. Buck and Aikman were mocking those people, not the military.
Buck was asked by his Daddy Issues cohost, Oliver Hudson, whether Fox is trying to find out who leaked the audio clip. Here is Buck's answer to that question and his explanation for what happened, how it happened and why it happened:
"That person will get found out because that specific shot of that flyover, which I personally thought was old and a tape that they were running out of our truck as furthering our conversation that we were having internally, I thought that was on tape, but it was actually live, but it wasn’t a Fox shot. They know whose shot that was and therefore they kind of know where our audio was going at that moment. It wasn’t going on TV. It was well before our game.
So I see this and Troy in the microphone is repeating something that he heard the night before from an unnamed person on our crew. This person happens to be very far left and said, 'Well, under Biden-Harris, you know that's not going to happen,' and Troy was repeating that watching the flyover.
So they clipped that as if he's saying that and as if he’s a Harris-Biden fan. But he’s repeating something that somebody said the night before, which is unbelievable.
If you know Troy at all, he was being 100 percent sarcastic. Repeating for the person in the truck to hear, like 'Ha, ha, ha.'
And then I go into a 1950s voice, like, 'There’s your hard-earned tax dollars at work,' or whatever.
Again, repeating parts of conversations to our crew and they clipped that and then run a headline that Troy Aikman and Joe Buck bash flyovers, which it had nothing to do with any of that.
It was a political conversation amongst our group that somebody clipped and sold for the exact reason that we’re doing this. And it stirs people up. And words get weaponized. And then people have to weigh in. 'Oh, well, screw those guys. They don’t like the military.' WHAT?!"
Buck then went on to share some personal details that he said he has never talked about publicly before.
"My dad earned a purple heart in World War II, was shot in Germany and was sitting in a hospital in Paris when WWII ended and saw Charles de Gaulle speak in Paris at the end of WWII. My grandfather was on a battleship in the Pacific in WWII. That’s my mom’s dad. I come from all that. Right on the down the line, that’s where my sensabilities are."
Buck then added, "But the idea that this piece was clipped and was totally misrepresentative of how we feel, because I’ve always kept that stuff private, but it was a private conversation and having it with our group and then it gets sold as if those were our words, which is fine. It’s kind of dead and buried now, but that’s what happened.
And the frustrating part is if that was a 10-second window into my soul, that would be unfortunate. But when it’s not actually representing what actually happened, that makes it doubly frustrating because people are getting something totally out of context."
2. If you like to read stories on ESPN.com after you finish reading Traina Thoughts, you're soon going to need to become an ESPN+ subscriber to read those stories, according to the New York Post's Andrew Marchand.
Sports Business Journal's Eric Fisher also reports that some ESPN radio shows will also be going behind a paywall.
3. You'd think having a caller who is sleeping and snoring while calling into your show would be a big insult, but Michael Kay and his crew, who do a show that airs on ESPN Radio in New York and the YES Network, handled this situation extremely well Wednesday.
4. AEW's Chris Jericho and MJF passed on sleeper holds and DDTs for singing and dancing on Wednesday night's episode of AEW Dynamite, and it was pretty impressive. MJF has major pipes and talent.
5. I couldn't possibly be more in for Young Rock.
6. This week's SI Media Podcast features a wide-ranging conversation with Peter Schrager of Good Morning Football. Schrager talks about how the pandemic has changed his gigs with Fox NFL Kickoff and GMFB, why positive COVID-19 tests won't shut down the NFL, whether it's fair to criticize Bill Belichick, the Dolphins' turning to Tua, disliking the Red Zone channel, best songs of the '90s, entertainers we'll watch no matter what, Borat 2 and much more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.
7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: That MJF-Jericho skit reminded me of what is still the most ridiculous/awesome segment to air on a weekly wrestling show: Mick Foley presenting the Rock with a "This Is Your Life" show.
8. SPORTS VIDEO OF THE DAY: This is still the greatest touchdown of all time.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.