MIAMI (AP) — As the FOX broadcasters covering this year’s Super Bowl met with the media Tuesday, the majority of questions continued to center around the death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant.
Joe Buck, who will call Sunday’s game alongside NFL Hall of Famer Troy Aikman, said Bryant’s relationship with his daughter hit him hardest.
“It seemed like he was an all-in dad,” Buck said. “I’ve said that before about myself. I don’t want on my headstone ‘called Super Bowl LIV,’ I want ‘he was a great dad.’ And I’ve got two daughters that I adore, and it’s clear that he was all-in with his girls.”
Buck said despite Bryant’s professional accomplishments, the biggest loss is that the world lost a great dad.
“There doesn’t seem to be an abundance of those,” Buck added.
Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and six other passengers were killed along with the pilot Sunday morning when the chartered Sikorsky S-76B plowed into a cloud-shrouded hillside in Calabasas as the retired NBA star was on his way to a youth basketball tournament in which Gianna was playing.. The last of the nine bodies was recovered Tuesday.
Howie Long, who is a member of the FOX NFL studio team, says he was shocked and devastated by the news.
“When you lose a daughter or a child, it’s all the more shocking,” Long said of the crash.
Long added it’s clear Bryant had an impact felt far beyond America’s borders. He thinks this is an accident that potentially could’ve been prevented.
“You leave yourself wondering why….”
