In a time and place where everyone seems to be trying to get to Vegas, ESPN’s lead NFL play-by-play man, Joe Buck, is happy to stay away.
“I do not have any desire to be there,” Buck said of the Super Bowl during his Monday appearance on 101 ESPN in St. Louis. “It’s a lot of logistics. It’s a lot of congestion.
“I’m not that way. I’m not looking for the Maxim party and going out all night. It’s just not my thing, and then you combine that with Vegas. There’s going to be some story, there’s gonna be something that happens because it’s Vegas and it won’t stay in Vegas. It’s gonna be a big something that happens. I don’t know what it is. I have no idea. I just think that is going to be a mess in my mind.”
Visitors walk in front of an entrance to Caesars Palace with Super Bowl LVIII signage displayed on February 03, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The game will be played on February 11, 2024, between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Though Buck offered no prediction on what kind of “mess” he believes will emerge from the Super Bowl week. It’s not hard to imagine that the mixture of star athletes, mega-millionaire celebrities, endless amounts of booze and drugs, and a substantial population of locals who make it their business to enable bad decision-making could lead to a negative storyline or two or more.
It could also be that Buck’s foreboding premonition stems from the recent experience of his friend, former Cowboy legend Michael Irvin, who was accused by a female Marriott employee of making lewd comments at last year’s Super Bowl in Phoenix.
Signage for Super Bowl LVIII was displayed on a pedestrian bridge on the Las Vegas Strip on January 30, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The game will be played on February 11, 2024, between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Stadium. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Regardless, the potential for negative press is definitely present.
Though it didn’t happen in Vegas, the negativity got off to an early start for Chiefs QB Pat Mahomes, whose father, Pat Mahomes Sr., was arrested for DWI last Saturday night in Texas.
The Chiefs and the 49ers will tangle in the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 11.
