Throughout the 2023 college football season, Kirk Herbstreit’s dog, Ben, was frequently featured on ESPN’s College Gameday and Thursday Night Football. But unfortunately, Herbstreit recently revealed that a recent health scare will delay Ben’s return to football programming.
During an appearance on The Bret Boone Podcast, Herbstreit shared that Ben has been through a “tough” football offseason, recently undergoing major surgery to remove multiple masses after being diagnosed with Leukemia.
“Ben is always ready. We’ve had a tough offseason. I haven’t really told anybody this, he got diagnosed with leukemia and most recently had to have an operation where they had to take a couple of masses,” said Herbstreit. “They had to open him up and took out his spleen where there was a mass and then another mass on his intestine, which is a pretty big procedure when you’re ten years old.
“I didn’t know if we were going to lose him or what. He did not respond favorably the first three or four days; wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t go to the bathroom. This was just probably two-and-a-half weeks ago, and he’s slowly kind of coming out of that state and is back to taking walks and eating and wagging and starting to get back to his personality. So I am praying every day for him and hoping that he’s going to be OK – first of all just to be OK and then secondly, hope to be able to take him on the road with me again this year.”
The first College Gameday show of the season is set to take place on Saturday in Dublin, Ireland for the Aer Lingus College Football Classic between Florida State and Georgia Tech.
As you may expect considering the recent surgery and a lengthy flight to another country, Ben will not be part of the coverage, according to a recent reply on social media from Herbstreit. Herbstreit detailed that Ben should however be ready for Week 1’s edition of College Gameday at Texas A&M.
Hopefully, Ben to be feeling like himself once again by the time Week 1 comes around. Particularly because College Gameday is not the only programming that Ben will be featured in this coming college football season.
Herbstreit revealed last month that he will be hosting a new show alongside Ben called Walks with Ben, where the two will “interview interesting people around college football.”
[The Bret Boone Podcast on Audacy]
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.