Kirk Herbstreit and social media go together like water and oil.
But it’s a vice he’s claimed to have quit.
On the same On3 podcast with Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman that the face of ESPN’s college football coverage denied the network’s perceived SEC bias, he addressed one of the many elephants in the room — social media.
To be fair to Herbstreit, he faced a lot of vitriol on social media from Florida State fans since the end of 2023. He felt the need to keep defending his opinion as to why the Seminoles should’ve been left out of last year’s College Football Playoff, only to speak out about the consequences of “dark” online negativity.
Obviously, Herbstreit’s aware of what takes place on social media. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken aim at Ohio State’s “lunatic fringe.” But even after his X account bemoaned “false narratives” about his College Football Playoff commentary, which he subsequently got Community Note’d for, Herbstreit seemed to claim that it wasn’t him who did that.
“I deleted Twitter a long time ago — I don’t have it,” Herbstreit explained. “I just have a buddy. My son tweets stuff out. It’s ridiculous. I don’t read anything. I don’t see anything. Nothing.”
When Staples mentioned that his wife pointed out a number of years ago that he became a “miserable” person when he fed into reading the social media comments and that he no longer tries to do it, Herbstreit shook his head like he was nodding in approval.
“Nope. No chance,” he added. “I don’t pay attention. I don’t look at it.”
Herbstreit may claim he’s logged off, but social media always seems to find him anyway.
[On3]
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.