Hey, sports announcers: You should already know this, but once your microphone is attached, anything you say – politics included – can be recorded and played for the masses.
If you don’t want to become part of the “Shut up and dribble” narrative, keep your non-football opinions off the live mics.
Veteran NFL broadcasters Joe Buck and Troy Aikman failed to heed that rule on Sunday before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers/Green Bay Packers game in Tampa. The two seemed to criticize a military flyover following the national anthem.
Aikman started the exchange, which, while recorded, did not go out over the Fox national broadcast, commenting, “That’s a lot of jet fuel just to do a little flyover.”
Buck chimed in, “That’s your hard-earned money and your tax dollars at work.”
Aikman then seemed to offer a form of political endorsement: “That stuff ain’t happening with [a] Kamala-Biden ticket, I’ll tell you that right now, partner.”
That comment could be interpreted in two ways. First, Aikman could have meant that a Democratic administration under Biden-Harris would not waste taxpayer money on an event such as a military flyover, which, he seemed to indicate, was a waste of time and resources.
Let’s consider that for a moment. First of all, since when do Democrats have a political reputation for not spending too much money? And second, what does the president have to do with scheduling military flyovers at public events?
But there’s a second interpretation. Aikman actually could have been throwing shade at Biden-Harris, implying that such military flyovers wouldn’t happen under a Democratic administration because, supposedly, Democrats aren’t patriotic like Republicans are.
If Aikman were apparently endorsing the Biden-Harris ticket, that would fly in the face of his past support for Republicans.
Our opinion: the media have it all wrong. Aikman was dissing Democrats as not being patriotic. But until Aikman clarifies his comments, no one knows for sure which interpretation is correct.
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