SI

Kirk Herbstreit ‘Controversy’ Shows Everything That’s Wrong With Sports Media Today

The ESPN college football analyst got some heat for a totally fair comment that was taken out of context.

Jimmy Traina

Kirk Herbstreit got in hot water this week over a totally benign comment.
Kirk Herbstreit got in hot water this week over a totally benign comment. / Mateo Rosiles/ Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

1. From September until early December, we are treated to about a billion college football games each Saturday.

Then we get a light Saturday with a handful of conference championship games. The following week, it’s usually just the Army-Navy game. This year, we got the Army-Navy game in the afternoon and a Boise State-Washington bowl game at night.

It is absolutely jarring for a die-hard college football fan to go from a smorgasbord each Saturday to a Saturday with one or two games. You’re lying if you’re a college football fan who doesn’t think it stinks to wake up on Saturday morning and have no game until 3 p.m. during that Army-Navy week.

ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit pointed this out earlier this week, in a post to promote his podcast, saying, “Saturday not having college football threw us for a loop.”

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with what Herbstreit said. Nothing. Yet, because we live a time when everyone needs to be outraged every minute of every day, people were offended that Herbstreit said there was no college football last Saturday when, in fact, Army played Navy.

Anyone who took Herbstreit’s post literally and didn’t realize he was implying that it’s rough when we go from nonstop games from noon to midnight each Saturday to just one game is disingenuous and, in my opinion, dumb.

Meanwhile, the actual conversation that took place between Herbstreit and his cohost, Joey Galloway, was about how strange it was for him to be home on a Saturday. It was in no way a direct shot at Army-Navy.

From Awful Announcing:

“If you go back and listen to the podcast clip that was deleted from the beginning of their show, Kirk Herbstreit and Joey Galloway don’t actually say that there wasn’t any football last weekend. Rather, it’s more their reflections about being home for the first time since August. Kirk Herbstreit is a huge fan of former College GameDay guest picker Nate Bargatze and was invited to one of his shows in Nashville. After a discussion of their weekend, it was straight into Fernando Mendoza winning the Heisman, the Michigan drama, and the College Football Playoff, skipping past Army-Navy and the other games from the weekend.”

Apparently, the blowback was so bad, though, that Herbstreit deleted his post and the part of his podcast in which he talked about how strange it was for him to be home on a Saturday got deleted.

Herbstreit even had to defend himself and apologize for this ridiculous drama on Wednesday.

He shouldn’t have apologized and he shouldn’t have deleted anything. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a full day of college football action and pointing that out. I'm sorry, but having just Army-Navy and Boise State-Washington is basically the same as having no college football in the context of what we get on a week-to-week basis.

2. Last Sunday’s double doubleheader paid off for the NFL.

CBS drew 24.5 million for its late window featuring the Packers-Broncos game. Meanwhile, Fox pulled in 19.4 million viewers at the same thanks to the Lions-Rams game.

That means more than 40 million people were watching the NFL between 4:25 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.

In addition, the Bills-Pats and Chargers-Chiefs games at 1 p.m. on CBS drew 19 million viewers. That is the best Week 15 rating for the early Sunday window in 37 years.

3. If you’re a fan of watching Barstool’s big podcasts, a big change is coming in January.

Video versions of Pardon My Take, Spittin Chiclets and The Ryen Russillo Show will move off of YouTube and onto Netflix exclusively.

4. Knicks forward Josh Hart celebrated his team winning the NBA cup thing by doing this to teammate Jalen Brunson.

The best thing about this was Hart “addressing” his behavior on social media afterward.

Speaking of the NBA cup thing, this made me do a real LOL and not just an internet LOL.

5. I thought this reporter was going to lose it when Patriots wide receiver Mack Hollins hit him with a graphic analogy, but he managed to keep it together after almost cracking. Well done.

6. The latest SI Media With Jimmy Traina features an interview with the CBS NFL broadcast crew of Ian Eagle and J.J. Watt.

Watt talks about what it’s been like going from the studio to the booth, what has been the most difficult thing about calling games and calling so many Steelers games featuring his brother, T.J.

Eagle and Watt each reveal what has surprised them the most about the other, while Eagle also shares his thoughts on breaking in a new partner and how that has gone for him over the years. In addition, Eagle shares a story about seeing Watt getting hangry at a restaurant.

Other topics covered include Watt’s long hair, why Watt has YouTubeTV, why he is a one-TV guy and much more.

Following Eagle and Watt, Sal Licata from WFAN and SNY joins me for our weekly “Traina Thoughts” segment. This week’s topics include: the Raiders’ wild cover against the Broncos, the Justin Herbert-Laura Rutledge non-controversy controversy, college football playoff thoughts, Philip Rivers’s shocking return to the NFL, the biggest problem with Christmas trees and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: One thing I’ve learned about Rob Reiner over the past couple of days is that he was massively influential in keeping Seinfeld on the air during the show’s early days when the ratings were not good. Reiner explained his role in helping Seinfeld to Howard Stern in 2016. Jerry Seinfeld addressed this in an Instagram post.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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