Two spoiled millionaires Aikman and Buck criticize military flyover in hot mic moment further alienating NFL fans
Sports has had a brutal time of it for several years now.
COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, Colin Kaepernick, plus mostly self-inflicted wounds by players and owners who forgot the fans that brought them to the dance in the first place have left most professional with declining revenues and declining viewership.
That’s why it’s hard to understand what the two privileged millionaires, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were thinking on Sunday when they decided to criticize a military flyover prior to the Packers-Buccaneers game.
Apparently believing the mic was off, the two sarcastically spoke about the waste of money the military sanctions by doing flyovers, as caught by the web site defector.com:
Even Joe Buck and Troy Aikman find pregame flyovers to be a little much these days: https://t.co/0IZL6GhmZy pic.twitter.com/G4EpB3SYtN
— Defector (@DefectorMedia) October 19, 2020
JOE BUCK: Welcome to Big Noon Saturday!
TROY 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.
So two guys who get paid to do nothing more important than talk about a meaningless game played by other millionaires, decide to denigrate the dangerous task of military flyovers, which by the way are important training components for military pilots and despite criticism actually don’t cost taxpayers additional dollars.
“Pilots must execute a minimum number of flight hours to maintain proficiency. These flyovers will incur no additional cost to taxpayers,” said a joint Navy and Air Force statement in April addressing the criticisms of military waste.
In fact, typically flyovers are scheduled as a part of other training evolutions. As this Fact Check from WCPO News 9 in Cincinnati notes that flyovers are “accomplished as part of regular and mandatory proficiency training required to keep aircrews current and qualified and incurred zero additional cost to taxpayers.”
It’s especially rich as the broadcasters were announcing a game in person for a NFL game that only permitted reduced attendance due to COVID-19, missing the irony of wasting money on the NFL.
A flyover costs around $60,000 an hour, versus Troy Aikman who gets $7.5 million per season, or $469,000 per game, or roughly $156,000 per hour to talk football. And that’s no adding in Joe Buck, and all the other people necessary to run a NFL football TV operation.
Hey @TroyAikman You didn’t have a problem with military flyovers over your 27th Superbowl game! You had a big smile on your face! So now you think it is a waste and a joke? You are a weak spineless sell out to the nation! What a disgrace! https://t.co/5Jmy5SFbEm
— Code of Vets ™ (@codeofvets) October 19, 2020
The Defector agreed with Buck and Aikman, ironically calling the flyovers “military cosplay,” while watching grown men play football in uniforms that resemble nothing more than children’s pajamas.
“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,” said site editor Samer Kalaf.
Until sports figures understand that the military and police in our country are much more important than the cosplay done by coddled athletes, expect life to become more brutal for the leagues over time.
