Joe Buck is poised to leave Fox after 28 years for ESPN's Monday Night Football

New York Post

Buck is "expected to leave Fox Sports" for a "huge ESPN deal," reports the New York Post's Andrew Marchand, who adds that Fox today granted Buck permission to talk with ESPN and that "a deal is expected to come to fruition shortly." If a deal is done, Buck will reunite with his longtime NFL on Fox broadcast partner Troy Aikman, who reportedly signed a five-year deal worth $90 million to join MNF. Buck's potential exit leaves Fox without its top NFL broadcasting team as it prepares to broadcast next year's Super Bowl. The 52-year-old Buck, the son of legendary sports broadcaster Jack Buck, joined Fox Sports in 1994 at age 25, becoming the youngest announcer of a regular slate of NFL games. In 1997, he became the youngest World Series play-by-play announcer, a job he's held through last year. He has also done play-by-play for six Super Bowls. At ESPN, Buck will still get to call Super Bowl games -- in 2026 and 2030 -- as part of the NFL's new deal putting ESPN and ABC as part of the Big Game's network rotation. Aside from his Monday Night Football gig, Buck is expected to be involved in producing ESPN+ projects. Marchand reports that, for Buck's MLB replacement, "Fox will consider Joe Davis and Adam Amin internally, while also looking into ESPN’s Dan Shulman and MLB Network’s Matt Vasgersian externally." Kevin Burkhardt, meanwhile, is the favorite to replace Buck as Fox's No. 1 NFL play-by-play announcer, joined by recently retired NFL player Greg Olson, who started working NFL games for the network full-time last season. As Marchand notes, a Burkhardt-Olson booth would cost only $3 million to $4 million per year.