ESPN’s Joe Buck stands accused of Jinxing Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Chris Godwin following the player’s season-ending injury on Monday night.
Godwin is done for the year, having sustained a dislocated ankle during the final moments of the ‘Monday Night Football’ loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
The injury occurred while the Bucs were down by 10 points with less than a minute left on the clock, right after Buck questioned the team’s decision to have their star players on the field when the situation appeared hopeless.
He suggested Tampa Bay should pack up shop and “live to fight another day,” with Godwin getting injured on the very next play.
“What’s crazy is Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were talking about how unnecessary it was that the starters were still in and trying to score, right before Godwin suffers season ending injury. Wow,” an X user wrote as the caption to a recording in which Buck is heard speaking about the Bucs’ odd decision.
You can see some additional reactions below:
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“Talk about jinxing something and joking about it….. #ChrisGodwin #JoeBuck,” a fan wrote.
“Joe Buck had literally just said “live to fight another day……”,” someone else noted.
“Joe Buck: I know you don’t want to give up on games, but at some point you may just want to get out and live to fight another day. Very next play Chris Godwin, season over,” said a third.
“Also, I love Godwin and Evans, I hate to see that.”
Todd Bowles Has Explained Why He Still Had Chris Godwin Out There
Bucs head coach Todd Bowles would explain the reason for having his stars on the field despite the scoreline and the time left on the clock.
“We’re just trying to win the ballgame,” he told reporters. “We’re still down 10, trying to get extra points, kick another onside kick. It just happened.
“We’ve got our guys, we’re playing everybody we’ve got. It’s unfortunate he got hurt. We feel bad about that. But he’s a football player, and he wanted to be in the game just like Baker [Mayfield] and everybody else wanted to be in the game.”
This is somewhat understandable when you consider that the team had just recovered an onside kick and were trusting their luck. But it ultimately proved to be a terrible decision that will take Bowles some time to live down.
