Kirk Herbstreit Is Wrong on Eric Bieniemy, Owes Apology to Washington Commanders Coach
Prime Video's Kirk Herbstreit obviously didn't mean anything malicious by saying what he said on "Thursday Night Football" about the career path of Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.
But an apology is nevertheless due after the TV analyst's discussion of Bieniemy featured his take that Bieniemy - previously the offensive coordinator under head coach Andy Reid with the Kansas City Chiefs - had to somehow escape Reid's shadow and prove himself elsewhere if he wanted to advance and land a head coaching job.
Kirk Herbstreit Is Wrong on Eric Bieniemy
That is of course - given the actual path taken by other offensive coordinators on their way to becoming head coaches - all sorts of unfair and wrong and, to Bieniemy supporters, biased.
"Ah yes, Kirk, all 'OCs under offensive minded Head Coaches have to go do their own thing' to get a HC job," FOX's Nick Wright accurately posted on social media. "Except for, of course, McVay’s coaches (O’Connell, Taylor, LaFleur), Shanahan’s (McDaniel), Sirianni’s (Steichen) and Andy Reid’s, pre-Bienemy (Nagy, Pederson) …"
And the list goes on and on and on, with offensive coordinators (who coincidentally or not do not happen to be people of color) advancing with relative ease into the top spot, as opposed to Bieniemy, who was a key staffer in Kansas City on a perennial title contender but was often unable to not only get a top job, but sometimes couldn't even get an interview for vacancies.
At this moment in Washington, the Commanders have no reason to thump their chests about much of anything. Their 40-20 loss to the previously winless Chicago Bears, with Herbstreit in the booth, is where the organization's focus must be.
But on the day after? Herbstreit's focus should be on righting a wrong - and apologizing to Bieniemy for (hopefully unintentionally) perpetuating a lie.
