Kirk Herbstreit and golden retreivers Edit by Liam McGuire
By Matt Yoder on

Have you heard that Kirk Herbstreit has a dog? And that he travels with him? Former FS1 host Craig Carton certainly has, and he has had enough.

Herbstreit has been traveling with a dog for multiple years now. First came his dog Ben, who grew to be beloved by college football fans and became so famous that even President Joe Biden commented upon his passing. Ben was a service animal who traveled with Herbstreit after his son Zak was hospitalized at Ohio State due to a heart condition. Herbstreit’s wife has also been facing a battle with breast cancer.

Soon after Ben passed away, Herbstreit took a younger dog, Peter, along with him. And he’s made appearances everywhere the analyst goes whether it’s Thursday Night Football or College GameDay.

Herbstreit’s dog is so ubiquitous that the analyst even referred to him as the “Taylor Swift of college football” because of his popularity. That might be a bit of hyperbole. And it might be why it’s now become too much for Craig Carton to bear.

Carton started by saying he is no dog hater, he has a rescue of his own. But

“Somebody’s got to stop this Kirk Herbstreit. We don’t care about your stupid dog. We don’t. You’ve forced the damn dog on America, you’re forcing the dog on Al Michaels, you forced the dog on ESPN people. It’s great. You have a golden retriever, you love your dog. Let him set home,” Carton said. “You fly a dog on a private jet and then complain about your travel from one game to another and you throw that tennis ball down the hallway in the hotel waking everybody up so your dog can get some exercise. We don’t care about your freaking dog, A. B, if you love the dog that died so much, you wouldn’t have pivoted within 24 hours and bought a new dog, which is my point that that’s the beauty of dog ownership.”

“He had this whole big soliloquy and tears coming down his face. Oh, I lost my best friend Petey or whatever it was and within a day he got a replacement dog,” he added.

Unfortunately for Craig Carton, Kirk Herbstreit has several golden retrievers in his family waiting in the wings to be called upon if needed. So it’s likely that the dogs have become a permanent part of his television persona.

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