Kirk Herbstreit Unleashes Bombshell: Threatens to Quit Broadcasting

This article was originally published on Total Pro Sports.

Kirk Herbstreit isn’t looking forward to a ‘First Take’ appearance. As a matter of fact, he doesn’t want to have to join the show… ever. 

A regular at ESPN and part of the ‘College GameDay’ panel, Herbstreit also covers ‘Thursday Night Football’ for Amazon Prime alongside veteran Al Michaels. 

Despite his ESPN affiliation, Herbstreit isn’t a fan of hot takes and has said he will quit the network if he’s ever forced to appear on ‘First Take’.

“I think it started with Skip Bayless and Stephen A. because they kind of had a thing with them way back, way back at ESPN, where they would just kind of ‘Let’s argue to argue’ kind of thing,” he said on ‘The Inner Circle Podcast’ this week. 

“And it works for them, but I think other shows copied it and it just has become — I have to turn it off because it makes me get really frustrated as a sports fan and as somebody in the industry.”

Herbstreit swears he’d walk away before he ever participates in such.

“I watch some of these shows on various networks, especially the NFL shows, and it drives me crazy where our industry has gone,” he continued. 

“And politics are obviously this way, too, but it’s a lot of clickbait. It’s a lot of like really loud comments that will maybe go viral. ‘I might not believe in it, but it’s gonna go viral, and people are going to know who I am.’ Man, I will quit before I ever do that. Like, if that’s what it takes to make it, I would never do this.”

Kirk Herbstreit Would Even Quit ‘College GameDay

Herbstreit also explained how ‘College GameDay’ is nothing close to the type of debate shows you see on TV. While he admitted that having Pat McAfee around will always produce the viral moments, he noted that no one on there makes the show about themselves.

“On GameDay, we don’t do that. Again, Pat’s crazy and fun, but we make it about the players, we make it about the coaches, and we make it about the storylines. We really don’t make it about us,” he explained.

According to Herbstreit, he wouldn’t even stick around ‘College GameDay’. That is, if they ever turned into the type of show he claims to despise.  

“And the reason I’ll tell y’all that is if it ever changed, I would be so fast gone out of studio television. But I’m lucky. I kind of live on an island where we’re allowed to still talk ball and still just have fun talking about ball.”

Well, Stephen A. Smith might have a thing or two to say about that…