Kirk Herbstreit candidly discusses personal inspiration for new book ‘Out of the Pocket’

As ESPN broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit gets set to return to the booth and the “College GameDay” set, he is promoting a new book that he wrote in the last year.

While the book, “Out of the Pocket: Football, Fatherhood, and College GameDay Saturdays” mentions college football, Herbstreit shared in an interview with Knoxville’s 99.1 The Sports Animal that it also touches on several personal anecdotes and stories about his family.

“Man I never thought I would write a book, I never thought I would — just never thought I would be a person that had anything to say that somebody would want to read a book about,” he said.

Herbstreit said he’s had a lot of different writers approach him, but said, “maybe when I’m 70 or something like that.”

But then he said at the beginning of the pandemic last year, ESPN writer Gene Wojciechowski approached him again at the right time, and the time to reflect.

“When you see me, you think about football, and there’s football in it, but it’s also a book about being a son, having a dad who was my hero, some of his shortcomings and some areas he and I struggled with in our relationship,” Herbstreit said. “And it’s about being a dad myself with four boys of my own and some of the challenges that I’ve faced. Nobody really hands you a book when you become a dad and here’s the perfect way to become a dad. For me, I just learned through trial and error.”

Herbstreit added that everyone has trials and tribulations and that Wojciechowski asked him questions about things he hadn’t thought about. Herbstreit shared that his parents divorced when he was 8-years-old.

Herbstreit said he hopes people can relate to what he went through and that some of the experiences resonate with people.

“It’s a little bit of a deeper book than you would probably expect,” he said. “It’s not just about GameDay and celebrating football on Saturdays.”

Herbstreit also said that he decided to be honest and vulnerable and that Wojciechowski helped him through it as he’s written several books already.

“I would assume people that don’t know me on a personal level, they kind of just see me sitting there for the last 25 years, blonde haired, blue-eyed guy in a suit “lives a perfect life,” what a great world he must have,” he said. “And then maybe they’ll see a different side. Everybody has challenges. Everybody has things that they go through and not everybody is in a position to open up and talk about them.”

.@KirkHerbstreit of @ESPN joined the @ErikAinge3 Show to preview his new book Out of the Pocket. Also, hear his thoughts on Josh Heupel and the #Vols. https://t.co/blXE6UguVl

— 99.1 THE Sports Animal (@SportsRadioWNML) August 10, 2021

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.