{"id":695747,"date":"2026-01-22T07:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/695747\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T07:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:15:19","slug":"nfl-announcer-joe-buck-not-happy-with-growing-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/695747\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Announcer Joe Buck ‘Not Happy’ With Growing Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

NFL<\/a> announcer Joe Buck<\/a> is “not happy” with a growing criticism in regards to the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

The criticism isn’t aimed at Buck, though. Instead, it’s aimed at legendary NFL announcer Al Michaels. Many have been pushing for the 81-year-old broadcaster to retire following the year. However, he’s already announced that he’ll be returning in 2026.<\/p>\n

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“Al Michaels needs to retire,” one suggested.<\/p>\n

“It’s time. Give it up,” another added.<\/p>\n

“He needs to give it up already,” one suggested.<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/p>\n

Joe Buck’s MNF joke.ESPN&period;<\/p>\n

(ESPN&period;)<\/p>\n

But Buck, who has long been the subject of much announcing criticism – though he’s certainly one of the best in the game and deserving of praise – fired back at the critics of Michaels this week.<\/p>\n

Buck sounds off on those ripping Michaels<\/p>\n

Buck appeared on\u00a0The Sports-Casters\u00a0podcast<\/a>\u00a0with Steven Bennett and sounded off on those ripping Michaels. He’s “not happy” about it.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt just drives me nuts because I\u2019m such a fan of Al\u2019s,\u201d Buck said, per Awful Announcing<\/a>. \u201cAs I\u2019ve said, all I have to do is hear his voice, him say one word. I\u2019m like, OK, I\u2019m watching that game because it\u2019s important, and if he\u2019s there, it\u2019s an important game. I think he\u2019s phenomenal. I still think he\u2019s phenomenal. I listen to him, and I marvel at what he\u2019s able to do. I just think he\u2019s fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

He doesn’t get the criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019ve said before to others that he and I have become really good friends over the last few years,\u201d Buck said. \u201cHe left me this great message before our Steelers game the other night. He\u2019s very supportive of what I do, and I just hold him up as the best to ever do it. So, I don\u2019t get it. I don\u2019t agree with it. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair and I don\u2019t think accurate at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Others, though, would disagree.<\/p>\n

A clip went viral of sarcastic praise aimed Michaels’ way. The clip has more than 2.3 million views.<\/p>\n

Michaels, meanwhile, has made it clear that he wants to continue working.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always felt, I\u2019ll go as long as I can, or I\u2019m wanted, but I have to be able to know that I can do the game at the level that satisfies me,\u201d Michaels told Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo this year. \u201cIf I feel not what I have been or the way I perceive myself to have been, that\u2019ll be time to step away, I don\u2019t feel that way right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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This story was originally published by The Spun<\/a> on Jan 22, 2026, where it first appeared in the NFL<\/a> section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NFL announcer Joe Buck is “not happy” with a growing criticism in regards to the 2025 season. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17992,101508,7,16153,6,426],"class_list":["post-695747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-al-michaels","tag-buck-sounds","tag-football","tag-joe-buck","tag-nfl","tag-steelers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115937525138060641","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}