Joe Buck leaves himself small note to ease Super Bowl pressure

MIAMI — Even after calling five Super Bowls and 22 World Series, Joe Buck reminds himself how he should approach broadcasting in front of around 100 million.

Almost like a little Post-It note in the middle of his game chart that has all the names, numbers and tidbits for each team’s players, Buck has two words in all caps, punctuated by two exclamation points.

“HAVE FUN!!”

Buck, 50, grew up in the booth with his legendary father, Jack, who has been on the most Super Bowls on TV and radio as any play-by-player in history. Jack called the last Chiefs Super Bowl a half-century ago.

Joe has been a professional for more than three decades as he began at 19. Still, even with all that experience, the Super Bowl remains different, so Buck just likes to visibly write down a little cue of how he wants to sound.

“The enormity of the moment and the size of the audience can be overwhelming, if you let it be,” Buck told The Post. “Being live to that size crowd for that long can add pressure.

“It’s a visual reminder of something I wrote on my board when everything was calm and quiet.”

Even with the pressure, there is no place that Buck would rather be.

“I have the greatest job on the planet and I’m smart enough to realize that,” Buck said. “Despite all of that stress, there’s no place Sunday that I would rather be.”

Radio call: On Westwood One’s radio broadcast, Kevin Harlan and Kurt Warner will be joined by CBS’ Gene Steratore, a new addition.

“Officiating and analysis of rules are becoming more and more prevalent in the game, and when you look at a broadcast of this magnitude that if something should happen in this game that is a huge play that needs to be looked at, reversed, whatever, we should look into adding somebody,” said Howard Deneroff, Westwood One’s executive producer.

Steratore was on the TV call with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo for CBS last year. CBS granted permission, and Steratore wanted to do it.

“I think we all hope the game doesn’t come down to an officiating decision at the end,” Deneroff said.

On the sidelines, Tony Boselli and Laura Okmin will report.

Mrs. Olympia: While Jessica Mendoza’s spot on “Sunday Night Baseball” is in serious question, she is a candidate to call both softball and baseball for NBC at the Olympics in Tokyo this summer, according to sources. This would be in addition to whatever her ESPN role ends up being.

NFL Buzz: The Romo CBS/ESPN sweepstakes was the biggest sports-media topic during Super Bowl week, with many asking: Where do you think he ends up?

There is a subtext storyline, as Drew Brees and Greg Olsen mull retirement. Along with Peyton Manning, Brees would be the most obvious next candidate. The question, as always, is: Will he want to do it?

With Romo likely to receive $10 million-plus, a guy like Brees may be in position to ask to be compensated at a high level, even as a rookie. Romo only made around $3 million this year on his rookie broadcasting deal.

Brees will be part of Fox Sports’ mobile coverage — hanging with Joe Montana, Brett Favre and Joel Klatt on the network’s social channels.

Olsen has the drive to be a broadcaster and has prepared to do it when he hangs it up. He is on Sunday’s Fox Super Bowl pregame show and will do five XFL games with Kevin Burkhardt shortly after. Fox favors two-man booths, so it is easy to see Burkhardt and Olsen on its second team next year. Burkhardt’s current partner, Charles Davis, is in need of a new contract.

With CBS’ second team, Dan Fouts is also without a contract, creating potentially another spot for a new analyst to grow with Ian Eagle.

For more on the Jets, listen to the latest episode of the “Gang’s All Here” podcast:

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