Kirk Herbstreit became a very busy man in 2022. After he spent well over a decade in the booth for Saturday Night College Football broadcasts on ABC and ESPN, Herbie joined the Amazon Thursday Night Football production for its maiden voyage. As a result, Herbstreit, at times, appeared strained by undertakings added to his already busy schedule.
Herbie admitted he needs to “chill” this coming season during an Amazon-hosted Zoom call this week, according to the New York Post. Herbstreit discussed that and more during the call:
“Last year, I know I was taking on something that was kind of unprecedented, really, doing an NFL game on a Thursday and then doing a three-hour ‘College GameDay’ studio show at a national level, and then calling a Saturday night game. There’s a lot of preparation.”
The former Ohio State quarterback enters his 29th season as a college football analyst after he joined ESPN back in 1996. He’s logged a lot of miles by now. So you might expect that he has felt taxed and that last year took its toll on him. Herbstreit admitted that as well, per the Post.
“The execution of the actual job and those three gigs for me is fun, if I’ve done my prep, and I’ve built my entire career on being prepared, and having all the answers, and what I learned is I didn’t get to go to dinner with Al, Kaylee [Hartung] and our entire crew enough,” Herbstreit continued.
“Or just go get a workout. I cannot tell you how much I prepared, because I didn’t want to let anyone down, including myself.”
Herbstreit’s honesty is admirable in this case. Sometimes, people are inclined to dismiss concerns about anything. Let alone busyness, especially with the demanding career that Kirk has. So the fact that he did log all those miles and admitted he had a lot of tread on his tires is noteworthy. It’s transparency, and it can do a lot of favors for you.
So when you see Kirk Herbstreit on your TV this year, whether it’s a Thursday night, a Saturday night, or both, expect him to be a lot more chill.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022