Kirk Herbstreit, the former quarterback for the Ohio State Buckeyes, has received criticism over the years from fans of his alma mater for the means in which he discusses the program and its supporters. Ahead of the College Football Playoff Selection Show, in which it was revealed that Ohio State would be ranked No. 8 overall and host No. 9 Tennessee for a first-round matchup, Herbstreit expressed that after last year, he learned that he does not have any opinions about anything. Speaking to studio host Mike Greenberg, Herbstreit explained that he does not want punishment for eight months on social media from Florida State University fans on social media, nor does he want to receive any death threats.
Herbstreit has been a member of College GameDay on ESPN for 28 years and has worked as the lead analyst for live game broadcasts of college football since 2006. Outside of these ventures, he also works on Thursday Night Football with Amazon Prime Video alongside Al Michaels and Kaylee Hartung during the National Football League season. Yet Mike Ricordati, the co-host of Common Man & T-Bone on 97.1 The Fan, has emphasized his aversion for Herbstreit despite his platform and mentioned him early on Monday afternoon’s program.
“By the way, I like how everybody’s just discovering now that Kirk Herbstreit’s a douchebag,” Ricordati said. “Like I’ve been talking about this for 20 years. Welcome to my world. Now there’s stuff behind the scenes and there’s personal stuff that goes into my story, but this is a guy who’s always been ashamed of college football fans. This is a guy who makes his living talking down to you. For some reason, people still eat it up.”
Jonathan “T-Bone” Smith, co-host of the program, expressed that Herbstreit has one of the worst character traits in the business. Elaborating on his point, he divulged that Herbstreit is someone who is superficially nice to other people but will speak badly about them behind their backs. The assertion is consistent with opinions he has gleaned about Herbstreit over the years, outlining a purported dichotomy between the fans and those who work with him. Nonetheless, Ricordati has discerned scorn for fans at Ohio State.
“He has disdain for fanbases like ours – he really does – and you can hear it when he talks, and then he plays the victim card,” Ricordati said. “Like, ‘Well, that’s what I get for having an opinion.’ How many shows you need to be on douche?”
Smith emphasized that Herbstreit could follow the paradigm set by play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler in which he declines to give his opinion or selection for matchups since he is broadcasting the action. In fact, Smith articulated that if he cannot stand the heat that comes with the freedom to editorialize on these shows, he should get out of the proverbial kitchen. Later in the segment, Smith relayed Herbstreit’s opinion that it may be better for Ohio State to play on the road during the College Football Playoff rather than hosting the matchup at Ohio Stadium. Ricordati called the discourse asinine and proclaimed that Herbstreit played badly at the university and should know what it is like.
“If you don’t go out and play an awful football game and call an awful football game, that place is the biggest advantage that you have,” Ricordati said. “You want to go to Neyland Stadium for a night game on a Saturday night? You think that’s going to be better than playing in front of your home crowd, you moron?”
Smith added that there is an apparent condescension within Herbstreit’s commentary with an implicit expectation to always give credit to the college football coaches. Furthermore, he conveyed that Herbstreit makes it seem that the fanbase is too stupid to make certain judgments about how the coaches carry out their roles.
“I guess Herbie wants you to come into the game and know nothing about what has happened previously, have no context for what has ever occurred in the stadium,” Smith said. “‘Just get out there, sing your fight song, shut the hell up and then watch this team go out there. You know what? If for four quarters they fumble around and end up not playing well, you shouldn’t be mad about that because don’t you know Ryan Day’s a good coach? Look at his record, you idiot.’”
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