The Kirk Herbstreit Situation Exposes a Grey Area in College Football
It’s hard to find a bigger name in college football today than Kirk Herbstreit. The former Ohio State quarterback is a founding member of ESPN’s College GameDay history show and has called every national championship game in the College Football Playoff era. When it’s all over, he’ll be remembered as a titan of the industry among Keith Jackson, Vern Lundquist and Lee Corso. That said, he hasn’t done much to endear himself to college football fans in recent months. A few months ago, Herbstreit was one of the loudest voices calling for 12-1 Alabama to be added to CFP Field ahead of 13-0 Florida State. He answered the fan “Because I love Alabama! Point!” Herbsreith replied. “It’s the same in Texas. The same goes for Michigan. The same goes for Washington. The same goes for Oregon. This is also true for Georgia. I watch 10 to 15 live games a week from September to early December. I think I might comment on who I think is the best!! If FSU [doesn’t] like “BEST 4\”, tell the conference facilitators to change the protocol to “best”. Until then, I and others will be happy to provide feedback. Subjective discussion!! If you don’t like it, change it.”
Kirk Herbstreit, the father of five-star running back Dylan Raiola, who left Georgia for Nebraska before the early signing period in December, said he encouraged his son to transfer from the Bulldogs to the Huskers. “I’ll only name one person,” Dominic Raiola told Rivals. “His name is Kirk Herbstreit. I told Dylan to call me after I saw his performance cheering for Nebraska, and he said, “Hey, if it’s true, you should do it.” His attachment to Nebraska required him to talk to me and stand behind me, and I knew he had to, but I wasn’t going to sit here and tell you to change this place or be a part of it. Change of location. “You know I’m like a man when Kirk tells me and the other coaches that this place is special and Coach Rhule is a special leader.”
Georgia fans slammed Herbstreit on social media after the revelations. This has raised some questions among some fans, who have called for ESPN to punish the network for influencing the recruiting of prospects. He responded to the story on the Paul Finebaum Show today. Did he really do something wrong? This is a gray area. Many members of the media are misclassified as “journalists”. Herbstreit is not a journalist. Journalists have a passion for information and strive to convey it to the public without bias. This allows people to draw their own conclusions from the information provided by journalists.
Herbstreit’s category and many of the personalities seen on television fall into the “analyst” category. Like everyone else, he consumes the information in front of him, watches games, reads articles, talks to players and coaches, forms his opinions and makes recommendations. And he does it better than anyone else. Kirk Herbstreit did not violate any sacred journalistic standards by not acting as a journalist. He is a journalist. He never hid his love for the Ohio State program he played for. Would you be surprised if he encouraged recruits to go to Ohio State instead of Nebraska? Of course not. Of course, former Georgia players have told recruits that going to Georgia is in their best interest. Yes? Tim Tebow was eaten by an alligator and Cole Kubelik said it was a war eagle. These are just some of the things former players do on the air.
In retrospect, the gray areas are pretty clear. Words and names represent things. Before you attack someone for breaking journalistic norms, make sure they are journalists.
