Now the starting lineups for today's NFL game ... but first, how about that Biden-Harris ticket! Joe and Kamala won't be allowing wasteful military flyovers at sports events!
Before the Tampa Bay-Green Bay NFL game fans tuned into on Fox Sports Sunday, the announcers dumped a mouthful of hot mic political partisanship. Predictably, Yahoo Sports writer Ryan Young supported their mockery.
Fox broadcasters Joe Buck and Troy Aikman (seen in file photo) showed their opposition to military involvement in pregame activities and to the Trump Administration over a live microphone in audio that was not broadcast to TV viewers. Young agreed with them in denigrating the flyover, and he thought their comments were hilarious.
Here was the transcript:
AIKMAN: “That’s a lot of jet fuel just to do a little flyover.”
BUCK: “That’s your hard-earned money and your tax dollars at work.”
AIKMAN: “That stuff ain’t happening with [a] Kamala-Biden ticket, I’ll tell you that right now partner.”
Young pointed out in his story that flyovers are "quite the tradition, whether it’s at the Super Bowl or a random game in a small college town on a Saturday afternoon, one that fans have grown to love and expect over time."
However, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing teams to play games in empty or near-empty stadiums, Young wrote: "putting on a big pregame display with a flyover doesn’t make much sense.
"Fox broadcasters Joe Buck and Troy Aikman pointed out just how much of a waste flyovers have become this year on Sunday afternoon, though they didn’t mean to be heard."
Practicing social distancing, Raymond James Stadium in Tampa was only 25 percent full on Sunday, which caused the Fox broadcasters to question the flyover.
Young noted that The Washington Post reported earlier this year that flying a squadron of fighter jets in a ceremonial fashion costs $60,000 per hour — "which is a lot of money to pay for something that very few people will actually see."
Furthermore, Young said in the broadcasters' defense, "It’s unclear how much the flyover on Sunday cost or who specifically paid for it. However Aikman and Buck don’t see the value in that."
Samer Kalaf, managing editor of The Defector sports blog, added further defense of Aikman and Buck, writing that they "seem to see pregame military flyovers as wasteful and obnoxious. ... Even Troy Aikman, with his stilted jokes, can grasp how pointless a flyover is. All the more reason to banish them for good and reduce the NFL’s military cosplay by just a little bit."
Mike Florio, of NBC Sports, wrote that Aikman and Buck took some red state/blue state heat for their partisanship, but he defended the flyover:
"On the surface, it is a waste of money. But it also gives pilots flying time, which they need anyway. Moreover, it’s a potentially strong recruiting tool, underscoring the ties between football and the military.
"The bigger problem with Aikman’s observation isn’t that it’s political but that it’s incorrect. Flyovers will continue regardless of who wins the election, taking a break only when the federal government is shut down."
Two more points for narrow-minded, biased Fox Sports announcers: flyovers support America's military readiness, and the entire City of Tampa and the surrounding region could see the flyover -- not just the fans in the stadium.
