ESPN’s Joe Buck confronts Eagles fans alongside Jason Kelce in Philly

Do Philly sports fans really hate Joe Buck?

That was the central premise of the second episode of Jason Kelce’s late-night experiment on ESPN, which featured the longtime announcer as a guest alongside his wife, ESPN reporter Michelle Beisner-Buck.

Kelce set out to explore why fans in Philadelphia have grown to dislike the Monday Night Football announcer, in his 29th season calling NFL games. Buck had his own mission — to win over a crowd of Birds fans that included ex-players Brent Celek and Connor Barwin.

“You guys f— hate me, I know,” Buck told the Philly audience at Union Transfer Friday night. “But tonight, when I walk off this stage, you will love me.”

So why do so many Philly sports fans hate Buck?

One explanation is for 25 years, Buck called MLB games for Fox. So instead of Phillies fans hearing team-friendly announcers like Harry Kalas or Tom McCarthy during big playoff games, they heard Buck’s voice instead. Announcers for the team will obviously favor their own clubs, as Buck did when he used to call St. Louis Cardinals games on both radio and television. But Buck has to be fair to both sides during national broadcasts, which sometimes rubs fans the wrong way.

“You get pissed off at the guy telling you that whoever from the Yankees just hit a home run,” Buck said. “I get it. I actually don’t take it personally.”

“You sure about that?” Michelle Beisner-Buck half-jokingly responded.

She might have a point. It was Philly fans who helped drive Buck off Twitter for a year over the harsh comments he received while calling a 2015 Phillies-Red Sox game. And, he admitted, they might have had something to do with him going to therapy.

» READ MORE: Howie Roseman brings down the house in surprise appearance at Jason Kelce ESPN taping

Another explanation came from Kelce’s wife, Kylie Kelce, who missed the show with an illness (replaced by former Eagles defender Beau Allen) but found the strength to call in. Kylie, a lifelong Eagles fan who grew up in Narberth, said she was taught by her father to dislike Buck.

“It seemed as though he was always cheering for the other team,” Kylie said. The audience largely agreed, though Kylie couldn’t name any examples of Buck’s alleged favoritism.

Ben Stocker, who plays saxophone for Kelce’s in-house band, Snacktime, had one. He recalled watching the 2002 NFC Championship game between the Eagles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the final game played at Veterans Stadium, which Buck called for Fox.

Stocker remembers vividly Buck calling Brian Mitchell’s 70-yard return of the opening kickoff in a monotone voice resembling the teacher from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — “Mitchell. Mitchell. Mitchell.” Buck brought the same dryness to Duce Staley’s subsequent touchdown, which led Stocker to ask his mother “why the announcer sounded so sad.”

Her response? He must hate the Eagles.

What galvanized it for Stocker was the enthusiasm Buck employed calling Ronde Barber’s game-sealing interception return for a touchdown. Stories like that make it easy to see why a generation of Eagles fans developed animosity toward Buck, who has called many Birds games over his nearly three decades in the booth, first with Fox and now with ESPN.

During a commercial break, Buck came back to the stage and responded to Stocker’s remarks. In 2002, Buck replaced legendary broadcaster Pat Summerall as Fox’s top play-by-play announcer alongside Troy Aikman and Cris Collinsworth, another Philly fan favorite. Summerall was known for his dry, monotone voice and for using the fewest words necessary to call the action on the field. “Montana. Rice. Touchdown.”

“Well, I’m calling the big games, so I’m going to talk like Pat Summerall,” Buck recalled thinking. “It had nothing to do with Philly or Duce Staley.”

Following Friday night’s taping, fans speaking to The Inquirer didn’t necessarily fall in love with Buck, as he promised, but most didn’t hate him to begin with.

Jack Hines, a season-ticket holder who traveled from his home in Charleston, S.C., to attend Kelce’s show and Sunday’s wild-card game against the Green Bay Packers, thinks Buck gets a bad rap because he’s been paired with Aikman most of his career.

“When Buck announces him, ‘This is the Hall of Famer Troy Aikman,’ I think that’s like a big ‘Screw you’ to the city of Philadelphia,” Hines said.

“When Joe Buck calls a game, you know it’s a big game,” said Gregg Lomazoff from Cherry Hill, who will also be at the Linc Sunday. “I love it when he calls a game, he’s good.”

Instead of Buck, Eagles fans at the show and in general reserved most of their anger for an announcer at another network.

“I think everyone in Philly can agree Cris Collinsworth is the worse,” Hines said.

» READ MORE: Charles Barkley’s best comments on Jason Kelce’s new show didn’t make it onto ESPN