Paul Finebaum: ‘It’s absolutely ridiculous what has happened to Kirk Herbstreit’
By SDS Staff
Published:
Kirk Herbstreit started a bit of a firestorm last week with his comments that he’d be “shocked” if college football or the NFL is played this fall.
Herbstreit was on ESPN Radio last Thursday, and he was asked about football this fall following the coronavirus outbreak.
“In my opinion, until we have a vaccine, where we’ve really got some control over this, even if this curve is flattened out, this virus is still out there. I’ll be shocked, I haven’t talked with anybody but I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I’ll be so surprised if that happens,” Herbstreit said.
“Just because from what I understand, people that I listen to, you’re 12 to 18 months from a vaccine,” Herbstreit added. “I don’t know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. I just don’t know how you can do it with the optics of it.”
Naturally, when there’s literally nothing else going on in the world of sports, comments like that will get a lot of traction. Combine that with Herbstreit being the front-man for college football, and they become even bigger.
The College GameDay analyst has taken hit after hit by coaches recently. Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz later offered an apology after criticizing Herbie’s comments. Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly hammered Herbstreit for his comments. Others have chimed in, too.
Paul Finebaum joined “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 Thursday, and he took another route. He defended Herbstreit.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous what has happened to Kirk Herbstreit,” Finebaum said. “He gave an honest, heart-felt opinion, and that’s all it was. I know that because I talked to him Friday and have communicated with him since.
“Kirk Herbstreit is the face of college football,” Finebaum continued. “Nobody has done more promoting the game. No one has done more as an ambassador for the game in a classier manner thank Kirk has in recent years.
“It just shows you how narrow-minded we are about important issues.”
By staying home and self-quarantining during this time, the chances of college football only increase. Obviously, we won’t know about football this fall until the virus runs its course. College athletic directors are talking about several contingency plans though.
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
