An open challenge to Kirk Herbstreit to demonstrate his love of the game

During College GameDay on New Year’s Day, Kirk Herbstreit called out players for not loving football. Let’s see Herbstreit step up and prove his love.

By now, most college football fans have seen the footage of ESPN College GameDay live from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on New Year’s Day. Whether you watched live or saw the clip on social media, it was a bombshell. Kirk Herbstreit opened his mouth, and Kirk Herbstreit called out modern college football players as less than faithful to the sport.

What he actually said was this (pulled from the video in the tweet below):

"What’s the difference as a player in saying these games are “meaningless” when, Des[mond Howard], we played in quote-unquote “meaningless” games. I mean, I know you guys were here a lot, but I just don’t understand. If you don’t make it to the [College Football] Playoff, how is it meaningless to play football and compete?Isn’t that what we do as football players, we compete? So, I don’t know if changing and expanding [the College Football Playoff] is going to change anything, I really don’t.I think this era of player just doesn’t love football."

It is quite the damning indictment from one of ESPN’s most visible college football personalities. If you are among the rare souls who haven’t yet heard the words from Herbstreit himself, make sure to watch the video below.

Kirk Herbstreit claims to love college football, and I’m not here to question his affinity for the sport. I can’t imagine he’d lie about something like that. But it is fair to ask whether he loves college football on a holistic level, or whether he loves the sport because of the millions of dollars that college football brings to his bank account.

What we do know is that Herbstreit is a highly-paid media figure for whom this is a job. The ESPN veteran might very well love the game, but like every other laborer, he is also performing work in exchange for wages. In that way, Herbstreit loves college football as much as every player looking out for their future earning potential.

After the video went viral, plenty of hot takes wondered why Herbstreit called out players instead of head coaches like Brian Kelly and Lincoln Riley who bailed on their programs to take new jobs after the regular season concluded. The ESPN star was rightly called out for his conflict of interest in wanting as many high-profile players on the field as possible, given his network’s entanglements in owning almost the entire postseason inventory of bowl games.

But I’m done noting the self-interest and the hypocrisy.

I’m here to issue a challenge.

If ESPN didn’t pay Herbstreit so handsomely to co-host GameDay and call games, maybe he would have jetted across the country to call three games in four days out of the goodness of his heart. Maybe Herbstreit would sacrifice his time to volunteer for such a project.

That’s what he expects college football players to do, volunteer their time and risk their health for bowl games that have reverted back to their original design as postseason exhibitions without any real stakes.

Maybe Kirk was just tired after making his way across the country to Pasadena. But his follow-up statements on Twitter show that he never really listened to what he said on air before trying to walk back the comments. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have condescended to people who very clearly heard Herbstreit say what he said.

Go back and read the original transcript above, or click on the video again. People thought Herbstreit generalized and lumped an entire era of players into one category because that is exactly what Herbstreit did with the final line of his diatribe.

There are two fallacies at play.

1. Herbstreit is assuming some monolithic sentiment of love for the sport among college football players of previous generations that simply doesn’t exist. It is a claim that is so absurd at its root precisely because it deals in A) something that cannot be quantified and B) something that cannot be verified.
2. Kirk is assuming that love of the sport is the overarching prerequisite for participation in that sport. Plenty of athletes in every sport compete because they have physical gifts that can be converted into wages. They don’t necessarily love the sport, but like Herbstreit, at ESPN they do it because there is earning potential in that profession.

So now that we’ve acknowledged those two fallacies, let’s set them aside and grant Herbstreit the premise that love should be at the heart of every business decision.

Do you really want to show how much you love college football, Herbstreit?

Then put your money where your mouth is and show us all how much you love the sport, Kirk.

Maybe bowl season meant more when you were a player, Kirk. Its chaotic setup prior to the Bowl Championship Series era certainly held more heft in who won national championships, even as the Bowl Coalition and Bowl Alliance worked to restrict that power over the narrative.

But the players being excoriated for making a business decision are in a position Herbstreit never enjoyed, given that he was a backup through most of his college career and never came close to landing in the NFL. Kirk cannot understand the hard choices being made by NFL Draft-eligible players simply because it is a position he never found himself in as a college athlete.

If you want to show your love, it’s time to give back.

I get it, Kirk, we all have to pay the bills. That is as true of college football players as it is of media members. You’ve loved football so much over the years that you’ve extracted millions of dollars of net worth from the labor that creates the spectacle.

I’ll believe your take that you love the game more than the current generation of campus athletic workers if you forgo your entire $2 million salary from ESPN next year. Show up at every College GameDay set just for the perks of having your travel to the games subsidized. Sit through all the meetings and prep sessions just because you love the game so much. Volunteer your time to commentate; the press box food should surely be enough compensation for you!

After all, the talent on the field isn’t getting paid any more than that by their institution, so why would you want to love the sport any less than they do? (You’re welcome to negotiate a one-year renewable scholarship with ESPN if that helps sweeten the pot.)

Maybe you were just tired from all the jet-setting and taking opportunities away from other ESPN talent that surely love the sport just as much as you do. Maybe you did honestly misspeak in your original rant. But you doubled down, so now it’s time to make it right.

As a media member who spent years penning hundreds of college football articles for free before landing here at Saturday Blitz, I’ve demonstrated my love of the game. And if everything collapsed, I’d still be here writing about the sport because that’s what I love to do.

Can you say the same, Kirk? Do you love college football enough to do what you do for free?