Kirk Herbstreit on the ESPN College Gameday set at the 2024 Rose Bowl Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
College FootballESPNBy Kevin Harrish on

It’s been just over three months since the College Football Playoff selection committee chose the Alabama Crimson Tide over the undefeated Florida State Seminoles. And somehow, Kirk Herbstreit is still arguing with Florida State fans online.

Following the committee’s controversial decision back in December, the ESPN analyst defended the move, arguing that the injury to Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis changed how Florida State was evaluated – though he seemed to have the opinion that Florida State should be left out even before the injury to Travis. Herbstreit kept defending his opinion into the week, insisting he does not have an agenda and continued to defend his words weeks after the decision. And he got sucked right back into an argument with Florida State fans on Sunday.

It started with Hebstreit innocently sharing an old highlight clip of Joe Montana. This prompted a Florida State fan to reply, asking what he thought of Montana’s backup Steve Young, who is also in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The fan pondered if Herbstreit thought they should have simply canceled their season when Young went in for Montana.

Herbstreit reacted to this post with several crying laughing emojis, which prompted many more replies from Florida State fans. And Herbstreit could not seem to help but acknowledge them.

https://twitter.com/KirkHerbstreit/status/1754211761283387426?s=20

Eventually, Herbstreit’s responses got longer and even more defensive, beginning when one Florida State fan accused him of being a “corporate shill for ESPN.”

“About that…in what way am I a shill?? Seriously how exactly am I or anyone at ESPN at shill when we have as much if not more at stake with the ACC as the SEC? Such a JV/Clown narrative,” Herbstreit said in a post.

When a fan accused Herbstreit of refusing to admit he’s wrong and doubling down on a bad opinion, he then touted the amount of time he spends watching college football.

“Wrong for having an opinion after watching more football than anyone else in the country?? I’m not entitled to have an opinion on who the best 4 teams are after watching 10-15 games live a week? So, if I thought FSU was one of the best 4 I’m a ‘genius’ but since I didn’t I’m a ‘fraud’ ‘sellout’ ‘shill’?! Makes total sense you idiot!” Herbstreit said.

And when a fan questioned his claim about how much football he watches, pointing out that it would be impossible to watch more football than anyone else in the country when he’s also calling a game every week, Herbstreit defended himself again.

“Watch 5 games in noon window. 5 in the 3:30 window. Call a game at 7:30 while having 3 others on a bank of monitors. Then watch as much of the 10:30pm games as I can. Why?? Because I love it,” Herbstreit said.

Herbstreit eventually ended the arguments by calling out the “lunatic fringe portion” of the Florida State fanbase for continuing to argue with him.

“Know matter how hard this lunatic fringe portion of the FSU fan base tries I refuse to hold this against the Noles and their real fans. Been a fan of the Noles teams since the early days of Bobby Bowden in early 80’s and will continue to respect that brand and its tradition for as long as I’m covering CFB. See ya in Ireland week 0!!” Herbstreit said.

It’s not clear how long Herbstreit is going to continue fighting with Florida State fans about this. But after three months, he’s still at it.

[Kirk Herbstreit]

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