Packers Fans, It's Okay to Hate Joe Buck

Packers fans have unintentionally helped advance an unusual trend brewing in sports media throughout much of 2016 and now 2017: the Joe Buck redemption tour. 

For a variety of reasons, Joe Buck has always been a polarizing figure in the broadcast booth. Whether it's the perception of nepotism, his occasional condescension, or his affinity for hair plugs, people have always found something to dislike about Buck. 

But recently it's come into vogue to defend Buck, and Packers fans who launched a petition to have Buck and his broadcast partner Troy Aikman removed from Packers games. This was never going to work, and all it's really accomplished is to earn Packers fans a lecture from people eager to proclaim that actually Joe Buck is good.

And though the petition may have been misguided from the start, one thing is true: anyone who wants any announcer removed from a TV broadcast is correct, because all TV announcers are bad.

I am a former broadcaster, albeit on the radio side. I know that a broadcaster's career is only stable as long as the audience seems broadcasters to be necessary. It's for that reason that I feel completely justified in calling for the removal of all broadcasters from NFL telecasts, because none of them are necessary. 

The sports public is more educated now than ever before. The proliferation of sports media has created a worldwide fan base with access to information more comprehensive than ever before. Why, then, do we need a deep voiced commentator describing events to us that we can see with our own eyes? What improvement is Buck or Al Michaels or Mike Tirico or literally anyone over silence?

Broadcasters exist to improve the broadcast, and neither Buck nor anyone else does that. So go ahead. Call for his removal. Make petitions for every other TV broadcaster to get booted, while you're at it. We don't need them, and the sooner we get to watch our football games in peace, the better. 

Joe Buck will be on the call for this Sunday's NFC Championship Game against the Atlanta Falcons.